tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-320600702020-06-06T11:03:53.908+03:00Gathara's WorldFreshly squeezed brain juice.Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.comBlogger643125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-14119189705579611982020-05-13T08:58:00.000+03:002020-05-13T09:22:19.315+03:00Our Worst Foe Is Civilization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In November of 1871, the then Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, contracted typhoid fever, a deadly disease which at the time was blamed on sewer gas, a noxious vapor which arose out of the modern conveniences that were a feature of middle- and upper-class homes. Water closets had been heralded by sanitary science as the safest and most efficient means for disposal and, despite the foul smell they were associated with, having one was still considered a privilege. “The pestilence that walketh in darkness” t<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/archive/article/1871-12-07/9/4.html?region=global#start%3D1785-01-01%26end%3D1985-01-01%26terms%3DIt%20is%20a%20more%20terrible%2C%20more%20constant%2C%20and%20far%20more%20insidious%20danger%20which%20now%20occupies%20the%20foreground%20in%20public%20anxiety%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/It+is+a+more+terrible%25252C+more+constant%25252C+and+far+more+insidious+danger+which+now+occupies+the+foreground+in+public+anxiety/w:1785-01-01%7E1985-01-01/1" target="_blank">he Times called it</a>, declaring that “our worst foe is Civilization”.<br /><br />Today the world is stalked by another pestilence, one that does not spare the wealthy and has already afflicted the current Prince of Wales. In the words of the Times 150 years ago, "it is a more terrible, more constant, and far more insidious danger which now occupies the foreground in public anxiety”. Much of the concern is driven by the fact that Covid-19 is not just a disease of the poor. As Prof Alex Broadbent of the University of Johannesburg <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-08-is-lockdown-wrong-for-africa/" target="_blank">asks</a>: “Would we care about the increased risk of fatal pneumonia that Covid-19 might cause in Africa, if it did not also greatly increase the risk of fatal pneumonia for prime ministers, business people and university professors, including those in countries where infectious disease and its terrors are supposed to be of historical interest only”? As sewer gas did, coronavirus has “shifted the focus away from the fever dens of the poor to the bedchambers of princes and, more frequently, "ordinary middle-class houses" as sites of disease and death”.<br /><br />The pandemic is devastating more than just health systems. It is also shattering the illusion of safety engendered by systems which for centuries have concentrated global resources in a few societies, families and individuals while leaving many across the globe without access to basic life-sustaining necessities. And once again, the blame is being laid at the door of “Civilization”, this time in the form of globalization. "It's globalization that has allowed covid 19 to spread around the world at such incredible speed" <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/made-in-germany-a-stricken-economy-is-globalization-to-blame/av-52803972" target="_blank">declares Deutsche Welle</a>, decrying how reliant the West has become on cheap medicines and products from China and India. illustrating just how dependent the world has become on just one economy, China. declares John Gray.<br /><br />The coronavirus has hugely increased, at least in the short term, the costs of global inequality and exploitation. The question is whether “civilization” will win out as it eventually did in London, where following the Prince's recovery, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602365.2014.908589?journalCode=rjar20" target="_blank">sanitary reform</a> became a national priority. Will the global pandemic pave the way for reform of the global system to make it more equitable or is John Gray right when he <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/international/2020/04/why-crisis-turning-point-history" target="_blank">declares in the New Statesman</a> that “the era of peak globalisation is over”?<br /><br />Undoubtedly, continuing along the same path would entail the powerful accepting vulnerability as the price of inequality. After all, while the poor are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/12/paraguay-coronavirus-hungry-social-inequalities" target="_blank">paying a steep price</a> for a disease that the wealthy are primarily responsible for spreading, Max Fisher and Emma Bubola note in their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html" target="_blank">piece for the New York Times</a>, that “in an epidemic, poverty and inequality can exacerbate rates of transmission and mortality for everyone”. Therefore in the absence of a vaccine (and a viable one is reckoned to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/19/coronavirus-vaccine-covid-19-nhs" target="_blank">12-18 months away</a>), as long as the poor continue to get sick, so will the rich and powerful. How those at the top of the global food chain, be they the citizens of the global North or elites in the global South, act to reduce that vulnerability will depend on the extent to which they are willing to share the wealth along with the diseases.<br /><br />On the other hand, while it is true that economic globalization has been <a href="https://kof.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/media/press-releases/2019/10/weaker-world-trade-slowing-globalisation.html" target="_blank">taking a pummeling</a> of late, a significant retreat as Gray prophesies seems unlikely. Already, there is talk of reopening economies and resuming normal life. Yet without globalization and the accompanying “worldwide production and long supply chains”, the new normal would be an expensive one. It is questionable whether countries like the US and Germany could afford to produce goods and medicines at the cost that they import them from countries like China and India. Or whether their citizens would be willing to forgo access to cheap iPhones to protect the one-percenters.<br /><br />The other option open to the rich and powerful to reduce their vulnerability is to reform the global systems rather than retreat from them. That will require recognition that their privileged lifestyles are underwritten, as Umair Haque, the London-based consultant and author, <a href="https://eand.co/will-coronavirus-really-change-the-world-77d16e860996" target="_blank">notes</a>, by “centuries … of colonialism, capitalism, supremacy, patriarchy”. That has created a world where Europe, which grows no coffee, can make <a href="https://howmuch.net/articles/world-map-of-coffee-exports" target="_blank">5 times more</a> from coffee exports than sub-Saharan Africa which does. The global vulnerability to diseases like covid 19 rests on such distortions and inequalities.<br /><br />Changing this will be impossible if the mold is not broken. And building a world that works for everyone will require more than just tinkering at the edges. As Haque puts it, “without building global systems, nothing much will change”.<br /><br />At the close of the 19th Century, the scourge of sewer gas was not resolved by reducing the number of flush toilets within individual homes and retreating back into a world of cesspools and outhouses. It was ended through improvements in the unseen plumbing and infrastructure that ensured the sewer system worked for everyone. Not only did London get a new sewer system but in the 1870s and 1880s,&nbsp;<a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=6eOlhNkjXaAC&amp;pg=PA517&amp;lpg=PA517&amp;dq=The+Prince%27s+water+closet:+sewer+gas+and+the+city&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=sA8p6RA4-7&amp;sig=ACfU3U1Ei7U-0gMY5vtND0an8YRyj05BkA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj63pPns_voAhVT5eAKHRdZCnoQ6AEwBXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=The%20Prince's%20water%20closet%3A%20sewer%20gas%20and%20the%20city&amp;f=false" target="_blank">hundreds of patents</a> for sewer trap designs as well as water closets and flushing devices.<br /><br />Similarly, the coronavirus pandemic can provide an impetus for a flood of ideas on how to construct a better global order, rather than for retreating from it. Doing so will not be easy or cheap. But it can be done if the West is willing to invest the resources that it has taken from the rest of the world. And to stop taking a dump on them.<br /><br /></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-72086791978451785922019-06-23T15:36:00.000+03:002019-06-23T15:37:26.383+03:00Press Freedoms Under Threat In Kenya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001330592/blogger-alai-prison-officer-detained-for-two-weeks-over-wajir-attack-photos"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">arrest and detention</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> of two Kenyan bloggers, Robert Alai and Patrick Safari over pictures of dead Kenyan security officers that shared on their Twitter timelines has once again shone the spotlight on government threats to media freedom in the East African country. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The pictures posted by the two showed some of the bodies of 12 police officers </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2019/06/twelve-police-officers-dead-one-injured-after-ied-attack-in-wajir/"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">killed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> when their vehicle ran over a landmine suspected to have been planted by members of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terror group. The bodies had been piled in the back of a government pick-up in a disrespectful manner. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The government, perhaps predictably, took a dim view of his actions, with the National Police Service and the National Cohesion and Integration Commission </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019-06-17-alai-lands-himself-in-trouble-with-ncic-over-gruesome-photos/"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">both urging</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> the photos to be taken down the pictures. The police declared in a statement that the bloggers had chosen to “callously disregard common decency of showing respect to the departed and their families”. The NCIC chimed in claiming that the pictures would cause despondency among the country's armed forces and could be construed as “propaganda for war which is not protected under the constitution”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Both institutions seem apparently oblivious to the irony of claiming that it is not the actual treatment accorded to the officers’ bodies that showed disrespect but rather the reporting of it that was the problem. It is however not surprising. Such attempts at shaming Kenyans into silence are always employed whenever the government wishes to hush up criticism of its apparent lack of regard for officers and troops.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In January 2016, after nearly 200 Kenyan soldiers were killed in an Al Shabaab attack on their base near the Somali town of El Adde, the government also attempted to suppress any images that would highlight the scale of the failure, even going as far as to </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2016/01/yassin-juma-also-arrested-for-blogging-kdf-photos/"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">arrest and question</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> a number of bloggers and journalists who posted pictures of the attack (though not necessarily of the dead) on his Twitter timeline. The government-sponsored hashtag #HonourOurHeroes was deployed to suggest that those demanding the truth about how many people died and for senior officers to held to account were somehow the ones dishonouring the troops, not the clumsy </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/31/africa/kenya-soldiers-el-adde-massacre/index.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">attempt at a cover up</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Earlier this year, on the third anniversary of that massacre, Al Shabaab militants </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46888682"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">attacked the DusitD2 hotel complex</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> in Nairobi, killing at least 21 people. The New York Times published pictures which showed bodies of some of the dead, sparking a wave of online outrage from Kenyans on Twitter, calls for the deportation of their incoming bureau chief and threats of deregistration by the Media Council of Kenya – a state-funded body which regulates media in Kenya. At the time, while agreeing with the general consensus that the NYT was wrong to publish the pictures, some, </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/columnists/2019-01-28-patrick-gathara-take-down-photo-for-press-freedom-sake/"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">including me</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, warned that allowing, and even encouraging, the government to get involved would establish dangerous precedents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Today, those chickens are coming home to roost. The legitimization of the use of state power to intimidate and threaten the media has further emboldened those who are wont to shut down dissent. It is worth remembering that the Kenya government has had a long-standing ambition to censor the publication of pictures from terrorist attack. One attempt in 2014 sought to amend security laws to criminalize the publication of photographs of the bodies of terrorism victims without the consent of the police. It was fortunately </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/106083/"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">declared unconstitutional</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> for violating the guarantees of freedom of expression and of the media. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The government is well aware that the High Court in that judgment clearly disagreed with the idea that “images of dead or injured persons” even those “likely to cause fear and alarm to the general public or disturb public peace” amounted to propaganda for war. Though it is yet to state what laws the two bloggers are supposed to have broken, following </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/video/news/4146788-5163438-3n2ygz/index.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a court appearance</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, they will however be jailed without charge or trial </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001330592/blogger-alai-prison-officer-detained-for-two-weeks-over-wajir-attack-photos"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">for at least two weeks</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> while the police apparently investigate “claims they might have received the photos from an Al Shabaab sympathizer”. This despite the fact that a police officer has reportedly been arrested on suspicion of being </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001330592/blogger-alai-prison-officer-detained-for-two-weeks-over-wajir-attack-photos"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">the source of the images</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">. The point of all this seems less to secure convictions than to harass and intimidate citizens and journalists into silence. It is little more than an abuse of both police powers of arrest and of the court process. In addition, the whole saga may also be a ruse to distract from </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/uhurus-armoured-vehicles-protect-kenyan-officers"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">uncomfortable questions</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">regarding the whereabouts and quality of armored and mine-resistant vehicles that the government </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2017/01/500-police-vehicles-commissioned-kenya-gears-poll/"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">procured for the police</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> three years ago to protect officers form exactly this sort of attack. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The media in Kenya should be very afraid. In essence, the government is looking to </span><span lang="en-KE"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Blogger-Robert-Alai-may-face-terrorism-charges/1056-5162962-3kogl7z/index.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">punish reporting</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> that paints it in a bad light. If this sort of harassment is allowed to stand, it will not be long before regular journalists find themselves similarly treated when their stories rub the government the wrong way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br /></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com68tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-35887907369475777402019-06-20T15:56:00.000+03:002019-06-20T15:56:12.412+03:00BLACK, RED AND GREEN: The story behind the Kenyan flag<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fifty-six years ago, on July 26, 1963, the national flag of the soon to be newly independent state of Kenya was unveiled. The standard was typical of the country that had created it – cobbled together by an elite but imbued with pretensions at unity and forging common cause with common folk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In those heady days, as Kenya geared up to party, one could be forgiven for ignoring the tensions bubbling underneath. The country was in transition and the previous two years had been marked by political crisis, brinkmanship and even threats of war and secession. As described in 1964 by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Guardian </i>journalist Clyde Sanger and former official in the Kenyan colonial administration, John Nottingham, “During this period Kenya first experienced six weeks when neither [of the two major political parties, the Kenya African National Union or the Kenya African Democratic Union] would form a government and [Governor Patrick Renison] told visitors he was prepared to rule by decree; 10 months in which K.A.D.U., with backing from Michael Blundell's New Kenya Party and Arvind Jamidar's Kenya Indian Congress, carried on a minority government sustained by more than a dozen nominated members; and a year in which K.A.N.U. and K.A.D.U. uneasily joined in a coalition which was as full of frustrations as it was of intrigues. The politics of nation-building could not even begin until K.A.N.U. had fought and won a straight democratic election”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, the messy story of Kenya’s struggle for independence has largely been swept under the symbolism of the flag, yet the contradictions and disputes that gave rise to it continue to haunt the nation as they were never fully resolved. The tale of the flag itself is a manifestation of these issues.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Historically, flags were linked to conflict. “The primordial rag dipped in the blood of a conquered enemy and lifted high on a stick – that wordless shout of victory and dominion – is a motif repeated millions of times in human existence,” wrote Whitney Smith in his book </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flags-through-ages-across-world/dp/0070590931"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Flags Through the Ages and Across the World</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">.</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> Modern flags evolved out of the battle standards carried into war by ancient armies and “were almost certainly the invention of the ancient peoples of the Indian subcontinent or what is now China” according to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia Britannica.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In battle, flags were both symbolic and practical. They provided mobile rallying points for soldiers engaged in combat, could be used to signify victory or even, in plain white form, a truce or surrender. In the days before radio communications, they were also ways of communicating across vast distances, especially by sailors. In the modern age, they are still carry powerful symbolic significance. “Show me the race or the nation without a flag, and I will show you a race of people without any pride,” Marcus Garvey was reported to have declared in 1921.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the African continent, almost all the current national flags were created in the years following the Second World War and in the run-up to the demise of colonialism. Many still bear hallmarks of that colonial past. According to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia Britannica</i>, the ensigns of countries that had a common colonial past “bear strong family resemblances to one another”. It distinguishes two major categories: those former French colonies which “tend to have vertical tricolours and are generally green-yellow-red” and those of the Anglophone which “have horizontal tricolours and often include green, blue, black, and white.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenya’s standard also carries this history. It can be traced directly to that of the Kenya African Union, which was founded in 1942 under the name Kenya African Study Union, with Harry Thuku as its president. The flag of the KAU (the word “Study” was dropped in 1946) adopted the Pan-African colours pioneered by Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League 25 years before – red, black and green, which respectively represented the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry and which was shed for liberation; the race of black people as a nation; and the natural wealth of Africa. (It must be noted, though, that some have suggested that when Garvey proposed the colours, he meant the latter two to reflect sympathy for the “Reds of the world” as well as the Irish struggle for freedom.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, when originally introduced on September 3, 1951, according to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Encyclopedia Britannica</i>, KAU’s flag was only black and red with a central shield and arrow. The following year, the background was altered to three equal horizontal stripes of black, red and green with a white central emblem consisting of a shield and crossed spear and arrow, together with the initials “KAU”. At the time the black stood for the indigenous population, red for the common blood of all humanity, green symbolised the nation’s fertile land while the shield and weapons were a reminder that organised struggle was the basis for future self-government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Jomo Kenyatta took over the presidency of KAU from James Gichuru in 1947. Five years later, as reported by Karari wa Njama, a Mau Mau veteran and alumnus of Alliance High School, in the book </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mau-Within-Analysis-Kenyas-Peasant/dp/0853451354"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Mau Mau from Within</span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">, </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Kenyatta’s explanation of the significance of the KAU flag had changed. “What he said must mean that our fertile lands (green) could only be regained by the blood (red) of the African (black). That was it! The black was separated from the green by the red: The African could only get to his land through blood.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenyatta was speaking in Nyeri as the Mau Mau uprising was gathering steam. Though billed as a KAU meeting, Karari says that “"most of the organisers of the meeting were Mau Mau leaders and most of the crowd Mau Mau members". <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">Yet Kenyatta himself had little to do with the Mau Mau. On the contrary, he consistently denied any involvement with them and is, in fact, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1952kenyatta-kau1.asp"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">reported</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> – on the same day – as having distinguished the KAU from the uprising and having disavowed the use of violence. “He who calls us the Mau Mau is not truthful. We do not know this thing Mau Mau…K.A.U. is not a fighting union that uses fists and weapons. If any of you here think that force is good, I do not agree with you: remember the old saying that he who is hit with a rungu returns, but he who is bit with justice never comes back. I do not want people to accuse us falsely – that we steal and that we are Mau Mau.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">However, Karari’s recollection is important given that the red in the Kenyan flag would later be </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.kenyaembassyparis.org/about-kenya/national-symbols"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">claimed</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> to reflect “the blood that was shed in the fight for independence”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">By 1956, the Mau Mau revolt had been brutally quashed and gradually the restrictions on political organisation were eased. In 1960, the eight-year State of Emergency was lifted and the ban on colony-wide African political parties relaxed. KANU was founded on May 14 of that year and, as Charles Hornsby writes in his book </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kenya-History-Independence-Charles-Hornsby/dp/1780765010"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Kenya: A History Since Independence</span></i></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">, “its name, black, red and green flag and symbols were chosen as a direct successor to those of KAU”. At some point, the cockerel and battle axe were introduced as symbols of the party. A month later, on June 25, KADU was formed. John Kamau, an Associate Editor with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily Nation</i> has </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/analysis/Remove-Kenyatta-mischief-from-flag/539548-1738618-phnuwtz/index.html"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">written</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> that the “Kanu and Kadu flags were similar in design. Both had three horizontal bands and two similar colours, black and green. The difference was only in the third colour, red for Kanu and white for Kadu.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">KANU was dominated by the large agricultural communities – the Kikuyu and Luo – while KADU represented smaller, mostly pastoral ones, which feared domination. KANU won the 1961 election but refused to form a government before Kenyatta, who had been detained in 1952, was released. KADU, after extracting some concessions from the British, which included building Kenyatta a house in Gatundu and moving him there, formed a minority government with its head, Ronald Ngala, as Leader of Government Business and later as Chief Minister.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was only in September, after it had been in power for five months, that KADU begun to foster an issue that would come to define the conflict between the two parties. KADU espoused Majimbo, or regionalism, in opposition to KANU’s preference for a highly centralised post-independence state. KADU was egged on by the white colonial establishment to adopt this stand.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As explained by Sanger and Nottingham:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="height: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">“Majimbo's origins should be traced further back, to Federal Independence Party formed in 1954 by white farmers, who saw that political control would one day pass into African hands and wanted to seal off the 'White Highlands' from an African central government and save the great wealth of the Highlands for those considered had been solely responsible for developing it.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">“Indeed, regionalism really goes much further back than this. </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elspeth_Huxley"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Elspeth Huxley</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">&nbsp;</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">recalls&nbsp;</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">that the F.I.P. was only proposing to 'develop the "white island" idea … to carve out a small territory, about the size of Wales, comprising present areas of the Highlands. In this area they would exercise self-government; so would the Africans in other areas; and Kenya would become a federation of three or four smallish states, in only one <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">of&nbsp;</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">which would the colonists have political control. Here they would entrench themselves.'”<o:p></o:p></span><br />x</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is interesting that devolution, which is rooted in the Majimbo debates, has become a pillar of the 2010 constitution. Many Kenyans do not realise just how much current political debates are a reflection of much older, and not always innocent, proposals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">KANU, in opposition, was vociferously opposed to Majimbo, which it saw as entrenching tribalism. And by the second Lancaster House Constitutional Conference, which lasted from February to April 1962, both sides seemed, at least rhetorically, firmly entrenched in their positions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">But it was mostly for show. As Prof. Robert Manners </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4184349"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">wrote</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> at the time, “The contesting parties are less divided by issues, programs, and even concepts of political structure than they are by competing personal ambitions.” He added that he had spoken to several within the KADU camp, including two front benchers, who told him that they were not really afraid of KANU domination but rather, were cynically hyping up fears for personal benefit. “In short, it is fairly certain that KADU's leadership does not share the ‘tribal’ fears they have helped to arouse in their followers. They have employed some ancient anxieties and provoked a number of new ones with the apparently calculated intent of prolonging in some measure and for some time the freakish position of power with which they were endowed when KANU refused, in April 1961, to form a government.” Sound familiar?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Regardless, the outcome of the conference was a coalition government led by both Ngala, the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs with special responsibility for administration, and Kenyatta, who had since been released and was now the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs with special responsibility for economic planning and development. Each declared victory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">This “nusu mkate” government was a fractious affair from which Kenyatta’s Number Two in KANU had been excluded at the insistence of the Colonial Office. In his book, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Not-Yet-Uhuru-Autobiography-Oginga/dp/0435900382"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Not Yet Uhuru</span></i></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">, Oginga Odinga speculated that “Governor Renison persuaded the Colonial office that my visits to Socialist countries made me unfit to take Cabinet office”. He was also aware of “behind-the-scenes discussions in London in which some Kanu men hinted that I would be unacceptable not only to Kadu but even to some groups in Kanu”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Still, the coalition held till the elections in 1963, which KANU again won handily and this time they got to form the government, with Kenyatta as Prime Minister. In June, Kenya attained self-government and arrangements for independence began in earnest. Among the issues that would need to be settled was the question of a political union with neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania. As late as July, the idea of an East African Federation was still being taken seriously. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">A month before, on July 5, Kenyatta and his Ugandan and Tanganyikan counterparts, Milton Obote and Julius Nyerere, had issued the </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=gqTjUjdvTQwC&amp;pg=PA218&amp;lpg=PA218&amp;dq=We,+the+leaders+of+the+people+and+governments+of+East+Africa%E2%80%A6+pledge+ourselves+to+the+political+federation+of+East+Africa.+Our+meeting+today+is+motivated+by+the+spirit+of+Pan-Africanism,+and+not+by+mere+selfish+regional+interests.+%E2%80%A6+We+believe+that+the+East+African+Federation+can+be+a+practical+step+towards+the+goal+of+Pan-African+unity.+We+share+a+common+past,+and+are+convinced+of+our+common+destinies.&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=AuncP6nAsC&amp;sig=2uM1JciBcLFXyeZP9J4MQONw1uQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwil1oOQhMHcAhWKyYUKHWxGD94Q6AEwAHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=We%2C%20the%20leaders%20of%20the%20people%20and%20governments%20of%20East%20Africa%E2%80%A6%20pledge%20ourselves%20to%20the%20political%20federation%20of%20East%20Africa.%20Our%20meeting%20today%20is%20motivated%20by%20the%20spirit%20of%20Pan-"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Declaration of Federation</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">, in which they committed to establishing a political federation by the end of the year. This was another idea with a long history, pioneered by the white colonial settler establishment who, as far back as the 1920s, were ready to establish a federal capital in Nairobi in order to reduce the influence of London in the region. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The region was already tied together by a network of more than 40 different East African institutions covering areas such as research, social services, education/training and defence. As Nyerere had observed in March, “A federation of at least Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika should be comparatively easy to achieve. We already have a common market, and run many services through the Common Services Organisation…This is the nucleus from which a federation is the natural growth.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">When the issue came up for </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1963/jul/15/kenya"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">debate</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> in the UK’s House of Lords on July 15, Francis Twining warned of the difficulties of federation since it involved the loss of sovereignty which “these new countries value … above all else. They jealously prize their status symbols, such as national flags and national anthems”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">And, as Nyerere himself would </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://gathara.blogspot.com/2010/02/towards-united-states-of-africa.html"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">admit</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"> 34 years later, flags and other national symbols, rather than tools to rally unity, had become tools of personal aggrandisement and actually stood in the way of such unity. “Once you multiply national anthems, national flags and national passports, seats at the United Nations, and individuals entitled to 21 guns salute, not to speak of a host of ministers, prime ministers, and envoys, you have a whole army of powerful people with vested interests in keeping Africa balkanised.” Across the continent, attempts at political federation met quick deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">As Kenya moved towards independence, some within Kenyatta’s circle wanted to use the KANU flag as the national flag. This was not without precedent. As Tom Mboya, the brilliant young Justice and Constitutional minister, </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/political-mischief-Kenyan-flag/1064-4231568-sg3i6i/index.html"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">noted</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">, “It is not without significance that our neighbours, Tanganyika and Uganda, both saw it fit to use the ruling party flag simply as a basis for the national flag.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, Mboya cautioned against simply adopting the KANU flag, warning that it would further polarise the country. He managed to convince Kenyatta, who formed a small committee chaired by Dawson Mwanyumba, the Minister for Works, Communication and Power, to come up with the national colours. Doing so was not difficult because he was not really looking for national colours but rather a political compromise everyone could live with. So he did the obvious thing and combined the colours of the KANU and KADU flag by introducing the white fimbriation. The flag retained and updated the elements of the KAU flag, such as the shield and spears. The KANU cockerel and axe were omitted from the flag but made it onto the coat of arms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the flag was shown to the cabinet, the meaning of the red colour matched what Karari had understood Kenyatta to say over a decade before. Rather than simply including KADU, the white fimbriation was said to symbolise a multiracial society but the cabinet changed it to “peace”, perhaps a sign that while racial minorities would be tolerated in the new Kenya, their integration was not necessarily on the agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">But there were other issues related to minorities to be settled. In the northeast, the Somali population was in open revolt.</span>&nbsp; <span style="background-color: white;">A 1962 survey had found that 85 percent of Somalis preferred to join Somalia. However, in March 1963, Duncan Sandys, the Colonial Secretary, under pressure from Kenyan ministers, supported a Kenyan future for them. This sparked mass protests, an election boycott, calls for armed secession and attacks on government facilities. By November, the so-called Shifta war was raging, with audacious attacks by rebels armed and trained by Somalia.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Nairobi, Mboya pushed an amendment to the National Flag, Emblems and Names Act to outlaw the display of flags purporting to represent Kenya or a part thereof. This was meant to stop the Somalis flying the Somalia flag in the Northern Frontier District. But it also had other targets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">At the third and final Lancaster House Constitutional Conference, held between late September and mid-October 1963, tensions were so high that KADU leaders Ngala and Daniel arap Moi, who had been elected President of the Rift Valley Region, threatened to secede from Kenya, with Moi releasing a partition map and threatening a unilateral declaration of independence. (Again, sound familiar?)&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white;">There were even suspicions of an alliance with the Somalis in the NFD, which were fueled by a cable from Jean Seroney, at the London talks, to Moi: “Dishonourable betrayal of majimbo agreement by Britishers. Alert Kalenjin and region and Kadu to expect and prepare for worst. Partition and operation Somalia only hope.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mboya’s motion was thus not just aimed at the Somalis; the threats of secession by KADU regions had to be put down and one way was to deny them the right to fly flags purporting to represent an autonomous, or even independent, part of Kenya. Local councils, though, like the Nairobi City Council, were allowed to have their own flags.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There would be more drama surrounding the flag on independence day. The symbolism of lowering the Union Jack at midnight right before the Kenyan flag went up was profoundly discomfitting to the British. They determined that their flag would not be raised for the event after it had been lowered, as was customary, at 6pm. Kenyatta, who by now was their reliable lackey, was happy to go with it but when he presented the plan to the Cabinet, it was shot down, largely thanks to Mboya. So another plan was hatched with Arthur Horner, the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and then the head of the Independence Celebrations Directorate (the body charged with organising the event), who secretly ordered to put out the lights as the British standard came down and switch them back on as the Kenyan flag was raised. It was a ploy the Brits had pulled before, in both Uganda and Tanganyika.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On 30<sup>th</sup>July, just a few days after the national flag had been introduced, Kenyatta had given a ministerial statement on the independence day celebrations in which he bemoaned the people’s penchant to fly party flags wherever and whenever they desired, declaring it illegal. The national flag, he declared, would only be flown by “Cabinet Ministers and other authorised persons” and its reproduction, along with that of Kenyatta’s own portrait, would be strictly controlled. In this way, under the guise of honouring it, the flag was shielded from the masses and reserved for the glorification of the ruling elite. The flag, and the state it stood for, became the property of a few, not of all Kenyans.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After independence, this “protection” of the flag from the people, who were deemed too unclean to handle it, continued with frequent debates in Parliament about who could and who couldn’t fly it. Under Jomo Kenyatta’s successors, the law and the policy has remained largely unchallenged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">But the last two decades have seen the beginnings of a popular movement to claim the Kenyan flag. It has become ever more present in Kenyans’ lives – from activists like Njonjo Mue, who in 2004 scaled the walls of Parliament and </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Njonjo-Mue--Activist-election-petition/1064-4177542-dshul7z/index.html"><span style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">ripped the flag off a cabinet minister’s ca</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;">r as a way of demonstrating the government’s loss of moral authority to govern, and who more recently has been charged with flying the flag on his own car, to the many Kenyans brandishing it during public rallies and sporting events (it even famously made an appearance at the World Cup) it seems that, as Kenyatta feared 55 years ago, “every Tom, Dick and Harry” is flying it. He must be turning in his mausoleum. Good.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, besides reclaiming the use of the flag, Kenyans need to also consider what it means today. If it is not to be a tool of personal aggrandisement or unthinking and enforced veneration of the state, then what should it be used for? Who or what does it represent? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the years since independence, it has been a symbol, not of Kenyans and their struggles against oppression, but of Kenya and the power the continues to be wielded against them. The rituals associated with the flag and other symbols such as the national anthem, both reinforce and, paradoxically, disguise this. It is clear in the common statement that “Kenya is greater than any one of us” which at once distinguishes Kenya from Kenyans while also proclaiming the myth that the state is something more than a largely self-serving political arrangement between elites competing for power and prestige. Kenya, we are rather told, is a divinely-ordained an eternally established ordering of Kenyans to which we all owe allegiance and subservience. It recalls a time in my childhood when I was informed that suicide was illegal because it deprived the state of taxes, as if Kenyans were made for Kenya and not the other way around. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the week where we mark the anniversary of Kenyatta’s “Tom, Dick and Harry” statement to the House of Representatives, perhaps we could all take some time to remember all the history – good and bad – that the flag represents, as well as reflect on what else it could stand for. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We can choose, and many are choosing, to reinterpret its design and colours to suit, not the ambitions and egos of politicians, but the realities and aspirations of ordinary Kenyans. As it did for Karari wa Njama all those years ago, it should today serve as a reminder of the need to continue the struggle to free ourselves from the existing colonially-inspired order – that despite 55 years of independence, the black is still separated from the green.</span></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-38062738493614783792019-02-01T12:27:00.000+03:002019-02-01T12:27:59.887+03:00Matiang'i: Uhuru's Middle Finger To The Constitution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent elevation of Fred Matiang’i to “chief” of the Cabinet Secretaries has been widely interpreted as a swipe against his deputy, William Ruto. While there may be some truth in that, it feels like once again the country is missing the wood for the trees. The appointment is also a swipe against the constitution itself, part an unrelenting assault that the President and his party have mounted on the document since their campaign for office in 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To understand why this is the case, one needs to think back to the illegal deportation of Miguna Miguna, the self- declared “General” of the National Resistance Movement. Many will recall that this action, which came in the aftermath of Raila Odinga’s mock swearing in at the end of January, precipitated standoffs between the Executive and the Judiciary, with the former disobeying multiple court orders to produce him in court and return his Kenyan passport.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In December, the High Court ruled on Miguna’s constitutional challenge to the government’s action and agreed in toto with him. In fact, Justice Chacha Mwita found that Matiang’i, as well as the Inspector General of Police, Joseph Boinnet and Immigration Permanent Secretary, Gordon Kihalangwa, had violated the rule of law, the constitution and that their conduct amounted to abuse of their office. The constitution prescribes that such conduct is grounds for removal from office, not promotion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is the context in which we should understand President Kenyatta’s actions. He has basically flashed the constitution his middle finger and, by so rewarding, rather than firing, one who has so callously violated it, demonstrated his own contempt for the document and the institutions and standards it establishes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This contempt has been on display even before he became President. It was his and Ruto’s candidacy for the highest office while indicted for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court that made a nonsense of the constitution’s prescriptions on leadership and integrity. Today, he appears completely oblivious of the irony when he says that no person charged or implicated in corruption will get a State appointment until they are cleared, as a measure of dealing with graft.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But it is not only the President who is at fault. The constitution give Parliament the duty of oversight over Cabinet Secretaries and MPs can initiate a process for removing those that are guilty of gross misconduct. Yet to date, there has been no attempt to probe Matiangi’s conduct or even calls for his resignation or removal. Neither has any of the MPs raised their voice in protest at his elevation except in as much as it concerns the fortunes of Ruto.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The media, too, has not shown any particularly interest in rocking the political boat, instead preferring to let the politicians take the rudder. As always, the press has been entrance by the drama of of our personalized political contests (and especially the fate of Ruto’s ambitions to succeed Kenyatta) and are blind to the substance of the issues such contests skirt around. Quite the contrary, the media has been only too keen to lionize Matiangi’ and to present him as the savior of the wananchi, rather than the dangerous lawbreaker he is.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And we have been here before. In 2004, it was the late John “The Crusher” Michuki who was all the rage, the media again doing little to question his methods and motivations. They would pay dearly for that when he would authorize the 2006 raid on the Standard premises and order a news black out in the wake of the violence that followed the 2007 election.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Finally, failed by their representatives and kept singularly uninformed by the press, Kenyans have also been unable, even unwilling, to recognize the threat that allowing the several arms of government to subvert the constitution poses. After more than a century of governmental repression both before and after independence, the arrangements and duties in the 2010 constitution were primarily aimed at achieving one thing that its predecessor had failed to do: to bring the Leviathan to heel. That failure inaugurated half a century of brutal, murderous and kleptocratic regimes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yet nearly a decade after Kenyans voted overwhelmingly to adopt it, the constitution faces a similar fate: amended or simply ignored into irrelevance. And with no one to stand for it, this is a fight the constitution cannot win.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-80733859747647911422019-01-19T10:14:00.000+03:002019-01-19T10:19:33.660+03:00Kenya vs NYT is not about press freedom. But it could be.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The New York Times decision to publish graphic images of victims of Tuesday’s terror attack at Dusit D2 Hotel in Nairobi and the </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Twitter-storm-after-NYT-publishes-bodies-of-Dusit-attack/1056-4936838-102d3fyz/index.html">backlash</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> it has engendered online have sparked furious debates about everything from the perceived racism of the foreign press, to media ethics and the limits of press freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Many shades of opinion have been expressed with some seeing the photographs and the NYT’s refusal to take them down as a continuation of violence against the victims and their families, and as evidence of </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-photographs-of-dead-in-nairobi-terror-attack-failed-journalism-and-dishonoured-victims-110010">racist double-standards</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> in the reporting on terrorist atrocities. Others have opposed the torrent of personal abuse and </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/media-council-of-kenya-journalism-in-kenya-must-protect-human-dignity">calls for deportation</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> visited on incoming NYT bureau chief, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura following her </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://hapakenya.com/2019/01/16/why-kimiko-de-freytas-should-not-be-allowed-to-continue-reporting-in-kenya/">initial tone-deaf and seemingly dismissive responses</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> to complaints on social media. Now t</span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.pulselive.co.ke/news/media-council-of-kenya-issues-24-hour-warning-to-new-york-times-to-remove-photos-of/57tqmc2">hreats</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> by the state in the guise of the Media Council of Kenya to revoke or suspend her and her colleagues’ media accreditation if the Times did not remove the images and issue an unconditional apology have also opened up a regulatory can of worms.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Photographs of deceased victims of terror attacks strike a particularly sensitive chord in Kenya and it is not just the foreign media that has found itself on the receiving end of a social media backlash. Following the 2013 attack on the Westgate Mall, in which 68 people lost their lives, the Sunday Nation was </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.imediaethics.org/gory-front-page-photo-of-mall-attack-kenyas-the-nation-apologizes-ny-daily-news-runs-same-front-page-image-graphic/">excoriated and forced to apologize</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> after it published on its front page a gory photo of bloodied and screaming woman. Three years ago, the government arrested and threatened to prosecute bloggers for circulating pictures of dead Kenyan soldiers following the overrunning of their base in Somalia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">While extremely sensitive, it is not one that lessens Kenyans’ general commitment to press freedom. Fifteen months after Westgate, many were outraged when the government </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Chaos-as-MPs-pass-contested-security-laws/3946234-2561728-gw33mez/index.html">rammed through Parliament</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> amendments to security laws that included a prohibition on the publication or broadcast of images of terror victims without the consent of both the police and the victim. The law was later struck down by the courts which </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/106083/">ruled</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> it infringed on the constitutional guarantees of press freedom and freedom of expression. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Media editors also have to contend with evolving community standards and attitudes as well as social media’s empowering of audiences to forcefully express themselves. Two decades ago, in what seems a completely different era, graphic images of victims of the 1998 bombing of the of the US Embassy in Nairobi in which 224 people died, caused little uproar. And while </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/06/18/conflict-over-cause-of-death-of-protester_c1371126">pictures of victims of state violence</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> do not always attract the same umbrage, the traumatizing and, in many ways, uniting effect of terror incidents gives their expression particular force.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is within this context that we must understand the reaction to the publication of the photographs. The New York Times </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.nytco.com/press/new-york-times-responds-to-concerns-raised-by-the-media-council-of-kenya/">claims</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> it was motivated by the need “to give our readers around the world a clear picture of the horror of an attack like this”. However, many are not buying it, pointing out that, despite the paper’s assertions to the contrary, similar standards are rarely applied to white and US victims. In a telling </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/reader-center/nairobi-kenya-photo.html">interview explaining the Dusit D2 decision</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">, Meaghan Looram, the NYT’s director of photography admitted that she could not recall seeing pictures of victims of school shootings in the US and the need to abandon historical notions that “may have applied different standards to material from locations broadly thought to be remote or “over there,” rather than close to home.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But it is these same racist notions that have seen the paper refuse to bring down the offending photograph despite </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/over-14k-people-sign-petition-to-have-nyt-remove-gory-dusit-images/">over 14,000 people signing a petition</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> for it to do so. That this demand is being made by ordinary Kenyans is what should matter. It is not about censorship by the state. Rather, Kenyans are demanding that the folks at the New York Times choose humanity over their editorial policy. It should be a no-brainer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019/01/18/dusit-attack-mck-fires-back-at-new-york-times-justification-response_c1880295">stand-off with the MCK</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> is thus unnecessary. But it does have rather toxic implications for press freedom in Kenya. Not only does it make it easier for the state to isolate and target the foreign press corps, something </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://nairobiwire.com/2014/12/full-text-al-jazeeras-response-to-kenya-governments-threat-of-legal-action.html">it has previously done</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">, but giving the government a taste of the power to decide what content media can carry could whet its appetite for more. As was demonstrated with the 2014 security laws amendments and again with </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://nairobinews.nation.co.ke/news/government-ends-media-shutdown/">a shutdown of local private broadcasters</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> for a week last year, this is no idle threat. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-language: #0C00; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, for the sake of humanity and press freedom, the Times must take down the photo. And an apology would be nice too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-23730550538195493382019-01-15T22:37:00.000+03:002019-01-15T22:50:18.926+03:00How to Talk About Terror Attacks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The attack on the Dusit D2 hotel complex seems frighteningly familiar. From the images of people crouching along flower beds as gunshots ring out, to the smoke billowing from the top of the building, to the report of people hiding in rooms from terrorists, it feels like a rerun of the attack on the Westgate Mall in September, 2013.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are crucial differences though. The government's response was much faster and appeared much better coordinated than it was at Westgate. The government communications are also much better managed, if not exactly more informative - at least the confusion of five years ago has not been repeated.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, some things have sadly remained the same. The media coverage, for example, has largely consisted on regurgitating the government line and especially urging Kenyans to desist from sharing information that the state has not verified. This has been taken to ridiculous extremes, with analysts on one TV news station warning that terming the attack a terrorist act before the government declares it to be one is aiding the terrorists. On social media, there is talk of the circulation of fake pictures and news as well as constant admonitions against sharing anything. As KTN's Lindah Oguttu put it, "the less you say, the better".&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Given the country's long familiarity with attacks, especially since 2011, you would think that Kenyans would have figured out a way to talk about and around ongoing operations against terrorists. Yet across both mainstream and social media, the message is the same - follow the government's lead. This is despite the state's equally long record of lying and obfuscation during and after terrorist attacks. Rather than keeping the public informed, its primary goal has been to deflect any criticism and pre-empt any calls for accountability.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, nearly everything government officials said about Westgate turned out to be false. In fact, while the attack itself was done and the attackers either dead or had escaped by the evening of the first day, the security forces maintained an elaborate fiction of fighting terrorists while they systematically looted the mall for three days.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today's attack comes on the third anniversary of the sacking of a camp manned by the Kenyan contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia during which at least 173 Kenyan troops were killed. Once again, the government's rendition of the facts surrounding the attack turned out to be largely a work of fiction. To date, it has refused to disclose the exact number of casualties and its initial descriptions of facing 3 massive truck bombs and "truckloads of suicide bombers" were designed to exaggerate the scale of the attack&nbsp; in order to explain away the fact that the camp had been overrun.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is thus clear that the government cannot be trusted to provide accurate information on terror attacks. While it is equally true that the unmitigated spread of information among citizens, especially through&nbsp; social media, can harm security operations, when the government makes appeals for restraint, it is hard not to think of its past lies and to wonder what it is trying to hide this time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus a discussion of how better to report on, or speak about, ongoing operations against terrorists must begin with addressing the state's mendacity. For as long as the government refuses to consistently deal truthfully and honestly with its citizens, it will be folly to ask them to ignore their suspicions of its motives. In any case, the idea that following an attack, citizens must suspend their thinking faculties, and blindly and unquestioningly support the government's every whim, is the very definition of being terrorized.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is not a very smart thing to do either.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-37655640431784196572019-01-10T23:27:00.001+03:002019-01-10T23:27:28.025+03:00WHAT IS YOUR TRIBE? The Invention Of Kenya’s Ethnic Communities <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">David Ndii’s decision to </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DavidNdii/status/970311931285340160">publicly renounce Kikuyu ethnicity</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;last year and adopt a “Jaluo” one may spark a long overdue debate about the nature of ethnicity in Kenya and in Africa. For many people, both on the continent and outside it, the idea of tribe - with its connotations of strong, primitive, primordial ethnicity and ancient cultural traditions - is an indispensable part of African identity. The makers of the blockbuster superhero movie, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Black Panther</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, who imagined the fictional African state of Wakanda as the most technologically advanced nation in the world</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and one that retained its essential character</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, still felt constrained to organise that nation into tribes. Africans are first and foremost seen as tribesmen or tribeswomen and tribe is taken for granted as the best explanation for their actions. This idea is so deeply ingrained that few ever bother to question it.</span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet question it we should. For rather than something indelibly encoded into the African genetic make-up and over which one exercises little choice, tribe turns out to be largely an artificial construct. The fact is, there is a marked difference between how ordinary Africans, including Kenyans, think of tribe and its origins and what history and social science has to say about it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To begin with, just what is a tribe? Even this question turns out to be not as straightforward as some would have us believe. “Tribe has no coherent meaning” wrote Dr. Christopher Lowe of Boston University in his 1997 paper “<span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/courses/HI398/upload/Talking_About_Tribe.doc">Talking about ‘Tribe’: Moving from Stereotypes to Analysis</a></i></span>”. “If by tribe we mean a social group that shares a single territory, a single language, a single political unit, a shared religious tradition, a similar economic system, and common cultural practices, such a group is rarely found in the real world,” he wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What? But people do identify as Kikuyus or Luos, no? And they have done this for ages, haven’t they? Well, yes and no. People have always banded together in groups in search of security. As they grew, such groups, initially defined by kinship relations, developed common ways of responding to and relating with the world around them, as well as systems to manage relations within the group. But since the world kept changing, so did these groups. Some were subsumed into others, some got separated and developed along different paths, others disappeared altogether. Customs and languages changed. The idea that our current ethnic communities have survived unchanged from ancient times is plainly false. As Prof. Scott MacEachern of Bowdoin College in the US <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Scott_Maceachern/publication/12278428_Genes_Tribes_and_African_History/links/09e41500ed80c3c494000000/Genes-Tribes-and-African-History.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=PvvKrrbP1fOUPPxlmlMWG1msQGVRZP8b0Oai1fbtvmOO1fMwsz-chEEhfumOgQus-vPx_0teZSG5Agi3piBOXA.WJoIVvuc2JEqRvuzPEPF5CgKr7kR2q5gihUMRb7XDAvTtSAEniPjwNQnu5ABVxrTabW8EhxVyyvZs9mutfFD5g&amp;_sg%5B1%5D=HeGFYeVVndfmLzkeG6wq3lLXBHwL-ehmJTsWi-uMqUwFhdokoVoquYgdeBs0gBD8VMGmC6bdo2AvRGf2OywpwwtJe6QfPteDltbW6iuD1ERu.WJoIVvuc2JEqRvuzPEPF5CgKr7kR2q5gihUMRb7XDAvTtSAEniPjwNQnu5ABVxrTabW8EhxVyyvZs9mutfFD5g&amp;_iepl=">says</a></span>, “‘Tribal’ and/or ethnic identities have never been primordial and immutable, in Africa or elsewhere.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">In fact, our current ethnic formations - some of which did not even exist a century ago - and our understanding of how they relate to each other, are the products of much more recent events. “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333;">What is a tribe?” </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white;"><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n17/mahmood-mamdani/what-is-a-tribe">asks</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333;"> Mahmood Mamdani, the Executive Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research. “It is very largely a creation of laws drawn up by a colonial state which imposes group identities on individual subjects and thereby institutionalises group life… Above all, tribe was a politically driven, totalising identity.”</span><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The politicisation of ethnic identity began with the colonial experience,” says Prof. Kimani Njogu in the recent Africa Uncensored documentary titled <span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubeb3-VQjew">In Tribe We Trust</a></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> According to the book <span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://open.bu.edu/bitstream/handle/2144/23137/ethnicitypolitic00youn.pdf?sequence=1">Ethnicity and African Politics</a></i></span> by Crawford Young, “although the ethnic labels… have pre-colonial origins, they became comprehensive and rigidly ranked categories only in the colonial period; they were heavily influenced by imperial codifications and further transformed by politicised actions in the last half-century.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="PT" style="mso-ansi-language: PT;">Clearly, pre-colonial peoples had their ideas as to who they were and how they related to the world around them. But what we call tribes</span><span lang="EN-US"> today bears little semblance to the ever-changing aboriginal identities they fashioned and would probably be completely unrecognisable to them. In any case, the idea that today’s ethnic communities necessarily grew out of kinship relations is bogus. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">In pre-colonial societies, as Young explains, ethnicity was a fungible cultural artefact, one that was not necessarily encoded into one’s genes, attached to particular homelands or imbued with ideas of political sovereignty. Individuals and even entire societies could navigate in and out of them. In fact, even the ideas of kinship and shared ancestry were “notoriously malleable to serve contemporary social or ideological purposes. But once rooted in the social consciousness, mythology convincingly impersonates reality.” For example, a <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://web.artsci.wustl.edu/tparsons/tparsons/journal_articles/parsonsbeingkikuyuinmeru.pdf">study</a></span>by Timothy Parsons of Washington University details how the colonial government once urged </span><span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">Meru</span><span lang="EN-US"> elders to accept anyone willing to bow to their authority as Meru. He further states that “Kikuyu” was more an expression of agricultural expertise than a coherent or bounded ethnic group.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, for a colonial administration that required order and control in order to facilitate its extractive aim, such inexactitude was unacceptable. Confronted with the reality of the diversity on the African continent, the European colonisers tried to hammer it into compliance with their preconceived ideas. Much of this was accomplished using administrative measures and backed up by brute force. Young writes: “The task of the colonial state was to discover, codify, and map an ethnic geography for their newly conquered domains, according to the premise that the continent was inhabited by ‘tribal man.’ This ethnic template, as imagined by the coloniser, became the basis for administrative organisation.” Parsons adds that “faced with a confusing range of fluid ethnicities when they conquered Kenya, colonial officials sought to shift conquered populations into manageable administrative units.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Thus colonialism imposed its own version of order, superimposed its idea of tribes bounded within district boundaries on this ethnic patchwork, and even created an entirely new “</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">traditional</span><span lang="EN-US">” administrative structure in the form of tribal chiefs who were actually state employees. Young writes of “the illusion that colonial ethnic mappings were historically authentic”. In this way, the state created the tribe which, in turn, became, as Parsons states, “the basic unit of government, education, labour, law, and most importantly land tenure.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The late Prof Terence Ranger, in his famous 1983 essay on <span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/20121/files/3452640/download?verifier=e7tRI1MQ6ymmESI8n7UuA2aCSKHgburL78Wd3TN5&amp;wrap=1">The Invention Of Tradition in Colonial Africa</a></i></span>, shows how invented traditions, both European and African, were a crucial plank in allowing colonial settlers and administrators to “define themselves as natural and undisputed masters of vast numbers of Africans.” Which meant reinventing colonials as feudalistic patriarchs and the African as the tribal savage. Though many “found themselves engaged in tasks which by definition would have been menial in Britain and which only the glamour of empire building made acceptable” they were still proud to belong to “an aristocracy of colour”. Echoes of this remain today in the deference with which European “expatriates” are treated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ranger also notes that “since so few connections could be made between British and African political, social and legal systems, British administrators set about inventing African traditions for Africans… transforming flexible custom into hard prescription.” So successful was this effort that “many African scholars as well as many European Africanists have found it difficult to free themselves from the false models of colonial codified African ‘tradition’.” As he would <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://ojs.ruc.dk/index.php/ocpa/article/download/3604/1786">more recently summarize</a></span>, the colonial period was marked “by systematic inventions of African traditions - ethnicity, customary law, ‘traditional’ religion. Before colonialism Africa was characterised by pluralism, flexibility, multiple identity; after it African identities of ‘tribe’, gender and generation were all bounded by the rigidities of invented tradition.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">However, it is important to note that while tribe and tradition were built into the very foundation of the colonial state, the people were not just passive victims. Just as they had been doing for eons, they both resisted and reacted to the impositions, inventing and discarding identities and traditions of their own. At the outset of the colonialism, some identities, like Kikuyu, were already in the process of being created though, as <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/485216.pdf">described</a></span> by Prof Bruce Berman, were not yet stable nor traditional; they hardened in response to the colonial state. Later, similar innovations like Gusii, Luhya, Kalenjin and Mijikenda appeared in the years between the two World Wars to essentially beef up numbers for the negotiation of status within the colonial state. What John Iliffe said of our neighbours to the south in his book, </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://books.google.co.ke/books/about/A_Modern_History_of_Tanganyika.html?id=m0dalboHfXgC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">A Modern History of Tanganyika</a></span></i></span><span lang="EN-US">, was true in Kenya: "The British wrongly believed that Tanganyikans belonged to tribes; Tanganyikans created tribes to function within the colonial framework." Such ethnic and cultural refashioning continues to this day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">The important takeaway is that rather than ancient “</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">nations</span><span lang="EN-US">”, today’s ethnicities are a creation of the colonial era - “state-sponsored tribal ethnographies and romantic essentialised notions of tribal culture”, as Parsons describes them. </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Writing a decade ago as Kenya threatened to descend into ethnic carnage, American historian Caroline Elkins, author of </span></span><span class="Hyperlink0"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0070c0;">Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya</span></i></span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0070c0;">,</span></span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0070c0; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010404300.html?hpid=opinionsbox1">noted</a></span></span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> that</span></span><span lang="EN-US"> “Britain's famous imperial policy of ‘divide and rule’, playing one side off another, … often turned fluid groups of individuals into immutable ethnic units, much like Kenya's Luo and Kikuyu today. In many former colonies, the British picked favourites from among these newly solidified ethnic groups and left others out in the cold. We are often told that age-old tribal hatreds drive today's conflicts in Africa. In fact, both ethnic conflict and its attendant grievances are colonial phenomena.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition to creating and freezing tribal identities, the colonial state discouraged and outrightly forbade political organisation across the district lines they had drawn up. This meant that tribes were not just administrative and geographical entities; they were also set up as units for political mobilisation. Tribes were, therefore, state-mandated political identities that substituted for authentic cultural expression. “The structure of tribal administration enabled the ruling British elite to deny any representative character to the troublesome urban nationalist, while claiming for itself just that,” wrote Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in his essay “<span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/194323782/Political-Inequality-in-the-Kababsih-Tribe">Political Inequality in the Kababish Tribe</a></i></span>.” “Thus ‘the tribe’ and the ‘tribal system’ from being a means of efficient administration became the justification for perpetuating colonial domination.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During the bulk of the colonial era, competition for state power was conducted along racial lines (race being <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/01/racism-science-human-genomes-darwin">a similarly artificial construct</a></span>) while resistance to it was channeled along the tribe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The Legislative Council, for example, had a racial make-up, with representatives of Europeans, Arabs, Indians and eventually Africans. However, as Barasa Nyukuri of the University of Nairobi <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.596.7855&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf">observes</a></span>, “The early political parties in Kenya that championed the nationalist struggle against colonial establishments were basically `distinct ethnic unions'.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As independence approached, feuds over the state that the British would leave behind were transferred to the tribal arena. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">This understanding provides a different perspective to the essentialist arguments offered by David Ndii about Kenya </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/opinion/Kenya-is-a-cruel-marriage--it-s-time-we-talk-divorce/440808-3134132-154vra2/index.html">being a marriage of tribes</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US">. The reverse is actually true. The reality is that Kenya created tribes and then based its governance arrangements around them. And this is the primary reason why tribalism continues to infect our politics – as the Kenyan investigative journalist John Allan Namu declared, “Kenyan politics, by design, was always meant to be tribal.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sadly, despite their relatively recent colonial origins, tribal identities have proven to be all too enduring and ingrained. In the post-independence era, the ruling elites who inherited the colonial state from the British largely maintained its extractive nature and divide-and-rule character, even further entrenching ethnicity while paying lip service to the need to eradicate tribalism. As noted by Professor Daniel Branch in his book<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Kenya: Between Hope and Despair</i>, “elites have encouraged Kenyans to think and act politically in a manner informed first and foremost by ethnicity, in order to crush demands for the redistribution of scarce resources.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">The consequences have been predictable. Rather than tools for common advancement, the state and the resources it controls have become prizes in a bitter, no-holds-barred, ethnic contest for supremacy.&nbsp;</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;">The “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">totalising identity</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;">” of tribe has meant that Kenyans are unable to conceive of themselves otherwise, and thus are unable to imagine a different basis for political engagement. The zero-sum nature of the competition for power further reinforces and hardens tribal affiliations, engendering a with-us-or-against-us mentality with those who resist it branded as “ethnic traitors”. This all creates a vicious spiral at the bottom of which lie brutal conflagrations, death and displacement. Floating above the melee, just as the British did, is the political class that incites and is then able to continue its thieving ways with little fear of retribution.</span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Basing a state on the idea of tribe has also led to the perpetuation of regional inequalities as communities “not in government” are either neglected or, worse, treated as enemies of the state. It also drives corruption as public office is seen as an opportunity for tribal “eating”. Which is why the ethnic affiliation of the head of a public institution is always a good indicator of the ethnic composition of its employees. It is also the reason Members of Parliament feel constrained to defend public officials who suffer disciplinary action, as was the case recently when Lily Koros, the CEO of the Kenyatta National Hospital, was <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/03/03/rift-valley-leaders-want-knh-ceo-lily-koross-reinstated-read-malice_c1724065">sent on compulsory leave</a></span> after doctors at the hospital performed a brain surgery on the wrong patient. As Jerotich Seii <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://twitter.com/JerotichSeii/status/969883777261596672">observed on Twitter</a></span>, “If Lily Koros was, say, Mjikenda, not a peep would have been heard from these Kalenjin MPs. Ok, perhaps from Mjikenda MPs. And therein lies the problem. We defend tribe and not competence.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tribalisation of governance also fosters development strategies based on false ideas of ethnic characteristics, such as the one that some groups are not as suited for modernisation as others. Further, as Mamdani explains, the idea of unchanging tribes leads to the deification of fake, colonially-articulated, “traditional” culture and values, as well as the externalisation of social progress as “Western”. That has real consequences for social policy, for example <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2014/01/gay-bans-in-africa-are-about-control.html">on gay rights</a></span>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">It will be impossible to eradicate tribalism without undoing the colonial state on which our current ideas about ethnicity are founded and whose logic of extraction sustains them. As </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/kenya_ethnicity_tribe_state">John Lonsdale puts it</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US">, “There are, then, two very different dynamics currently at work in Kenya: internal ethnic dissidence and external tribal rivalry. Neither can be disarmed without rewriting the rules of political competition for the power of a rather different (‘post-post-colonial’) state.” Tribes today exist primarily as vehicles for capturing the state rather than as celebrations of diversity – which they, in fact, try to rub out. They exist to safeguard elite extraction and to prevent us from imagining different ways of being. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Kenyans today have perfected the curious art of decrying tribalism even while accepting the validity of tribe. Following the colonial template, the 2010 constitution institutionalizes ethnic formulations as the basic unit of government via </span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">the creation of counties based on colonial administrative districts and the </span><span lang="EN-US">safeguarding of “ethnic diversity” </span><span lang="PT" style="mso-ansi-language: PT;">in public jobs</span><span lang="EN-US">. Today’s social justice activists railing against “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.theelephant.info/radio/2017/08/07/the-ideology-of-uthamaki/">uthamaki</a></i>” – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>the skewing of state appointments towards particular groups – and demanding "regional balance" seem incapable of comprehending that the construction of the state around the idea of tribe is itself the problem. In a <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.sde.co.ke/thenairobian/article/2001271742/boniface-mwangi-some-kyuks-think-kenya-is-their-goat">recent article</a></span>, for example, Boniface Mwangi seems unaware of the irony of establishing his Kikuyu bona fides - “I am as Gikuyu as Gikuyus come”- before launching into a screed against Kikuyu tribalism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Recognising that the tribe was a colonial-era invention is empowering because it means it can be disinvented or reimagined; tribe is not destiny. Many look to Tanzania as an example of how the </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25054263.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:63732b308c72e24bdb7c9c7739f5b42e">adverse effects of tribe can be ameliorated</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US"> through public policy. Young also cites Kenya as an example where this has been attempted via constitutional design through devolution, the proscription of ethnically-based political parties and the requirement for presidential candidates to garner 25 per cent of the votes in a majority of the counties. However, this retains – rather than challenges – the idea of tribe and only seeks to manage relations between tribes, which means the potential for harmful political mobilisation of tribal affiliation remains. As Young acknowledges, “while constitutional engineering is of substantial value, it cannot alone respond to the challenge of accommodating cultural diversity”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The only way to completely eliminate real and potential inter-tribal tensions is to eliminate tribes. And the only way to do that is to eliminate the colonial state that created and nourished them, and to construct a different state and identities, even a national identity, on different foundations in its place. The problem is less the politicisation of ethnicity and more the ethnicisation of politics – the assumption that ethnicity is destiny without interrogating how ethnicity was and still is manufactured.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenyan social and political scientists can and should lead this effort. For too long we have left it to the politicians who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. Many Kenyans will understandably be scared of the idea of letting go of the ethnic brands that have defined them their whole lives, regardless of how hollow or counterproductive that branding may actually be. Providing a language to deconstruct the state and the tribe, as well as developing a basket of alternative, homegrown and much more authentic and beneficial political identities, are the overriding challenges of our time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no point in pretending that this is going to be either easy or straightforward. Or that such a project would not itself be vulnerable to capture by a ravenous and oppressive elite seeking to legitimise its rule, as has happened in Rwanda. But we can begin a national conversation about who we really are as people and how we build a Kenya for Kenyans and an Africa for Africans. That itself means beginning to see ourselves not as the “tribes” of Western imagination strait-jacketed by concocted traditions, but as free and thinking human beings with varied and ever-changing ways of being, and who are capable of imagining and bringing to life new worlds of our own. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="height: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="height: 0px;"><i>A version of this article was first published in The Elephant.</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-90490606818928685952019-01-04T22:28:00.004+03:002019-01-04T22:28:56.370+03:00The Outlook for Kenyan Politics in 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For Kenyans, 2018 begun on a knife edge. The final months of 2017 had been dominated by a dispute over the annulled August presidential election and the repeat in October. After President Uhuru Kenyatta was controversially sworn in for a second term in November, his rival, Raila Odinga promised to have a parallel inauguration ceremony, which after being put off twice, was slated for end of January.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Odinga finally took his oath as the “People’s President” on 30 January, unleashing a wave of government repression, including the shuttering for two weeks of private media stations who covered the event live, the arrest and illegal “deportation” of the self-styled “General” of the National Resistance Movement, Miguna Miguna, as well as the prosecution of Lawyer and MP, Tom Kajwang, for administering the oath. The stage was set for a continuing gargantuan struggle between the two Presidents for power and legitimacy – each had one and craved the other. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet as I write this, all that seems to have been nothing more than a bad dream. The <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/03/15/dont-believe-the-kenyatta-odinga-handshake-hype-kenyans-are-still-on-their-own/">Handshake</a></span>of March 9 completely scrambled the political picture, yoking Kenyatta and Odinga together in a political deal that was reminiscent of other deals the latter had forged with the former’s predecessors whom he claimed had stolen the Presidency from him: Mwai Kibaki in 2008 and Daniel arap Moi in 1997.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The deal conspicuously left Kenyatta’s deputy and presumed successor, William Ruto, out in the cold and set up an interesting historical dynamic. Since independence 55 years ago, Kenya’s ethnically-charged politics have been dominated by the shifting alliances and conflicts between 3 of its 44 officially recognized communities: Odinga’s Luo, Kenyatta’s Kikuyu and Ruto’s Kalenjin. In 1963, the independence party, KANU, was essentially a coalition of Kikuyu and Luo, and the Kalenjin, led by Moi, were in the opposition. Within a year, the opposition party, KADU, had been folded into KANU. By the close of that decade, following a falling out between Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga (Uhuru’s and Raila’s dads), Moi was Vice President and it was the Luo’s turn to be cast out into the cold. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2002, a coalition of Luo and Kikuyu elites, led by Mwai Kibaki and the younger Odinga, took over from Moi, who had been in power for nearly a quarter of a century, following Jomo Kenyatta’s death in 1978. This however, was not to last. Kibaki and Raila fell out and the latter joined hands with Ruto, the new Kalenjin kingpin, to challenge for the presidency in the 2007 general election. That bungled election, and the violence it precipitated in early 2008 forced all three together in a Government of National Unity. In a repeat of what happened in the 60s, this was followed by another Kikuyu -Kalenjin alliance which swept to power in 2013 and retained it in 2017 with the Luo again left in opposition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Handshake has reshuffled those alliances again, and William Ruto is now very much of the defensive. The President’s renewed and seemingly vigorously prosecuted war on corruption, which kicked off with the hiring of a new Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, and threats of lifestyle audits, has been seen by some as an attempt to clip his deputy’s wings. Given recent <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2018/12/ruto-should-retire-after-2022-murathe/">comments</a></span>by the ruling Jubilee party vice chairman David Murathe, to the effect that Ruto should retire from politics when Kenyatta’s final term ends, and despite the President’s <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/12/28/uhuru-distances-himself-from-murathe-on-ruto-retirement-remark_c1870607">protestations of innocence</a></span>, Ruto’s fate and ambition will be a defining issue for politics in 2019.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, Kenyatta will be under pressure in the coming year to begin to show tangible results in the corruption fight in the form of convictions. He has staked his legacy on the ability to bag the “big fish” – corrupt senior government officials - but so far, has only an empty net to show for it. The wheels of the Kenyan justice system grind very slowly indeed and it won’t be long before public confidence the DPP and the President begin to wane. They will need a few quick wins early in the year but it is unclear whether the courts will oblige. It is a problem of Kenyatta’s own making as in his rhetoric he has <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.theelephant.info/features/2018/06/28/wag-the-dog-war-on-corruption-or-a-power-grab/">repeatedly emphasized convictions</a></span>, rather than an actual reduction in the prevalence of corruption, as the measure of success. He has failed to articulate a comprehensive policy beyond prosecutions to seal the loopholes that provide opportunities for the pilfering of public funds. And now, he is trying to set up the judiciary to take the fall, suggesting in his Independence Day speech that judges were offering easy bail terms to suspects and deliberately slowing down cases. This will be an interesting and continuing flashpoint throughout the coming year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A final theme to watch in 2019 will be the issue of the national debt and the increasing skepticism with which ordinary Kenyans view the country’s relations with the largest holder of that debt – China. At the end of 2018, debt repayments and IMF conditionalities for new loans, have seen taxes raised on basic commodities like petroleum. The President’s upbeat rhetoric on the performance of his signature project, the Standard Gauge Railway, is undermined by seemingly <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001294667/worry-as-china-puts-sgr-funding-on-hold">waning Chinese confidence</a></span> in the project and reports, <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/business/Port-is-safe-from-SGR-loan--China-now-says/996-4912882-e8vkpz/index.html">denied by both governments</a></span>, that China may take over Mombasa port if Kenya failed to keep up its payments. With the government now reduced to borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, 2019 is set to bring even tougher <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Kenya-growing-debt-pain-to-be-felt-from-2019/2560-4900778-xn5mfb/index.html">economic hardships</a></span> for Kenyans than 2018.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Happy New Year!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com90tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-26677593622469006142018-06-29T07:59:00.001+03:002018-06-29T07:59:34.235+03:00Protecting Kenya's Civic Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal">This wasn’t how things were meant to turn out. It was so very different 16 years ago, when we sang of how Unbwogable we were and dreamt that Yote Yawezekana Bila Moi. Across the entire governance space, the state was in retreat. By 2002, a true civic space had been created which was evidenced by the flowering of music and arts. Organized civil society could indeed claim a lot of the credit for it through their efforts to advance political rights and freedoms as well to broaden the democratic process.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Fast forward 16 years and the situation is reversed. To understand what went wrong, we have to look back at our history.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">According to Wikipedia, “civic space is created by a set of universally accepted rules which allow people to organize, participate and communicate with each other freely and without hindrance and in doing so, influence the political and social structures around them.” From colonial times to the present, organized civil society has played a prominent role in the struggle to create and protect this space from the predations of the state. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In fact, civil society groups were the forerunners of political parties. It was folks like Harry Thuku and organisations like the Young Kikuyu Association and later the East African Association who early on articulated the political visions and programmes, and defined the goals, values and principles that would drive political action for a generation and beyond. Their significance for the civic space lay in the fact that their struggles often went beyond the acquisition of power to encompass respect for fundamental rights, social and economic justice as well as the freedom and dignity of Kenyans as human beings.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After WWII, with a broke Britain beginning to retreat under pressure of such organizations, many in civil society -from journalists to trade unionists to activists- transformed into politicians. By the time independence arrived, civil society organisations had taken back seat. Politicians and political parties were doing the driving. And very quickly, they constricted the space for citizens to communicate freely and influence politics. It would be a pattern with which Kenyans would become familiar.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the first decade-and-a-half of independence, politics and governance were for the most part left to the politicians. However, the 1980s and 1990s, as donors increasingly conditioned their support on governance reform and democratization, civil society became more vocal. Outfits like the National Convention Executive Council and religious organisations under the Ufungamano Initiative refused to leave constitutional reform to the state. Others, like the local chapter of Transparency International, were determined to hold their own against the government in the anti-corruption space. By the 2002 elections, Kenyans had clawed back many of the freedoms and reclaimed many of the spaces that the colonial state had denied them.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sadly, though, we made the same mistake we had made 60 years before. Many of civil society’s leading lights switched sides and became politicians, ran for office and actually won. Others were raptured into government via appointment. Organized civil society was effectively decapitated and went quiet. Once again, the civic space was slowly constricted. Soon the Mwai Kibaki regime was sending GSU into the Bomas of Kenya to stop debate on a new constitution, sending masked police into The Standard, teargassing demonstrators and stealing elections.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The same happened in 2013 and 2017. And every time civil society has retreated, the state has expanded with the consequent loss of civic space and the threat to civic freedoms.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Our history has shown that the state will not be reformed from within. Rather it will only be kept accountable by citizens interacting with each other freely within a civic space. The guardians of that space are organized civil society – churches, NGOs, media, trade unions, academia and other institutions citizens establish outside the state. We should thus be worried when civil society stalwarts troop to the state. Journalist-turned-politician, Mohamed “Jicho Pevu” Ali, and his Parliamentary colleagues, Charles “Jaguar” Kanyi from the musical world and trade unionist Wilson Sossion are walking a path many have trod before them. And we now know what comes after.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Holding the state requires powerful actors outside the government and able to challenge it. We should therefore urgently find ways to incentivize the habitation of non-governmental spaces. We must also work to protect the existing spaces where citizens today can congregate and freely interact - especially on the internet and on social media – from a state that is keen on policing them. The fox must not be left to watch over the hen house.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com93tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-61699675459500131612018-06-25T22:31:00.003+03:002018-06-25T22:31:59.105+03:00Why Prosecutions Won't End Graft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anti-corruption crusader and Publisher of The Elephant, John Githongo, <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.theeastafricanreview.info/op-eds/2018/06/16/kenyattas-war-on-corruption-words-wont-cut-it-the-budget-is-the-corruption/">writes</a></span>in the E-review, “Corruption in Kenya isn’t about greedy procurement officers, fiddling civil servants, crooked businessmen, shady bankers, thieving politicians … these players are born of a system of politics and governance that is itself inherently corrupt; one in which the thieves and those who facilitate them thrive.” Understanding this is the key to solving the corruption riddle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many times, it has been suggested that graft is a cultural problem that grew out of a supposed “African” tradition of gift giving. Now, it is a good practice to be skeptical every time someone uses the word “African” to imply a uniformity on the continent – and here a healthy dose of skepticism would be justified.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Joe Khamisi’s history of corruption - <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kenya-Looters-Grabbers-Corruption-1963-2017-ebook/dp/B07BTZWRCH/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1529514667&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Looters+and+Grabbers">Looters and Grabbers</a></span> – demonstrates, corruption was the gift of colonialism. It was, and still is embedded into the very fabric of the state the British created. The logic of that state was to legitimize the stealing by the few from the many and that is evinced throughout its design. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, Kenya was corrupted even before it became Kenya. By 1907, 13 years before the territory officially became a colony, bribery was already a feature of the nascent state. Khamisi cites Hugh Cholmondeley, popularly known as Lord Delamere, a leader of the British settlers, describing the relations between the public and the new rulers: “Time and time, I have had a native say they were stopped by an Indian policeman. When I asked them how they got away, they always said, ‘Oh, I gave him something.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Khamisi also describes how corruption seeped from the white colonial establishment down to its African enforcers, the appointed chiefs and policemen. A state built to steal was itself peopled by thieves. As David Anderson says in <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Histories-Hanged-Dirty-Kenya-Empire/dp/039332754X">Histories of the Hanged</a></span>, “Europeans were as guilty of corruption and malpractice in colonial Nairobi as anyone else, and Africans at the bottom of the colonial racial hierarchy were most often its victims”. The <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/CommissionReports/Report-of-the-Commission-of-Inquiry.pdf">Rose Commission</a></span>, which was established in 1955 to look “into alleged corruption or other malpractices in relation to the Affairs of the Nairobi City Council” found that “the practice of City Council servants demanding or accepting, and of contractors offering, bribes or, if you prefer, money presents-for services rendered or to be rendered, [was] by no means uncommon”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Corruption was baked into the state and its templates were established from early on. At the top, the white elite ripped off the state through public projects such as the railway and the construction of public housing, while at the bottom, poorly paid chiefs, members of African courts and police supplemented their incomes by extorting from the people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As Khamisi puts it, citing David Leonard’s <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/African-Successes-Public-Managers-Development/dp/0520070763">African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural Development</a></span>, “Through corruption and bribery, chiefs were transformed into willing agents of colonialism and were “implicitly encouraged to use their positions to amass wealth and demonstrate to all and sundry that it paid to cooperate with Europeans.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this manner, corruption became institutionalized as a way of doing government business. And when those chiefs and their kids inherited the state from the British, they really did not know any other way to be. Following independence in 1963, the civil service was massively expanded. But the Jomo Kenyatta (Uhuru’s dad) administration was not keen on paying for it. Following the colonial model, in 1971 <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/CommissionReports/Report-of-the-Commission-of-Inquiry-(Public-Service-Structure-and-Remuneration-Commission)-1970%20-1971.pdf">the Ndegwa Commission</a></span> recommended allowing them to supplement their wages with private business, which had the effect of legalizing corruption. The looting ramped up and it has been escalating ever since.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Understanding the systemic roots of corruption would allow Kenyans to see that successful prosecutions, while a necessary part of a credible anti-corruption strategy, will not fix the problem. Deterring and punishing the corrupt is no substitute for fixing a system that not only permits, but also rewards graft. Convictions, even in the unlikely event meaningful ones were secured, would be ineffective so long as a third of the government’s budget, <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/03/10/sh608-billion-of-kenya-budget-lost-to-corruption-every-year-eacc_c1310903">some Sh600 billion according to the EACC</a></span>, continues to be available to be stolen every year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The fact is, the rewards of corruption far outstrip Kenya’s capacity to punish it. The country’s energies would be better spent in holding political leaders accountable, not just for delivering convictions and harsher sentences, but for shutting down the gravy train. And that will require reforming how the Kenyan state works. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-24575162998218730182018-04-21T09:58:00.001+03:002018-04-21T09:58:56.973+03:00A Tribute To Kenya's Forgotten People<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week, the country lost a great patriot, one, however, whom most Kenyans had probably never heard of. My grandmother, Eunice Nyawira, passed away in her hospital bed after a long illness. Born at the dawn of the colonial era, she lived to see Kenya gain her independence and the subsequent betrayal of their hopes. She is part of a generation that is dying out and with them goes a great deal of history, not just of our family, but also of the nation they leave behind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are the ordinary people whose passing goes unlamented for the most part in a country that reserves its adulation for its politicians. I did know a great deal about my cucu and I took her presence for granted, assuming she would always be there to tell her story. It is something I will regret for the rest of my life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The current hagiographic memorialization of Kenneth Matiba and the angst over the fate of electoral commissioners just makes this loss seem even more severe. History has always been presented as the tale of a few powerful men and Kenyan history in particular revolves around the fates of Big Men like Matiba. In this telling, the experiences and acts of a humble peasant woman in a nondescript corner of what is now Nyeri county hardly seem to merit more than a few lines in the obituary pages.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, it is on the backs of people such as Cucu Nyawira that this country was built. It is their numerous small acts of resistance – such as when she confronted colonial officials in Nyeri to get my late mum admitted into Ngandu Girls, or when she organized food for Mau Mau fighters, for which she was briefly arrested and detained - that provided the podium on which the Big Men stood. An illiterate woman who bore and educated 10 kids, who organized her community to build schools, to create better housing as well as water storage is exactly the sort of everyday Kenyan we should honor and celebrate daily.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are millions of unsung heroes and heroines like her across our land. Ordinary Kenyans who did and continue to do extraordinary things. They are the rocks upon which families, communities and nations are founded. Their stories deserve to be collected and shared, their lives celebrated. They are a valuable store of history and with each loss of one of their number, that store is irredeemably diminished. While they are still with us, we should have a nationwide project to collect and document their stories and their lives. And not just the elderly generation, but all of Kenya’s generations. Rather than Kenyan history being the story of its Big Men, we should make it the story of all its people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I imagine this being a collective and collaborate effort. No one person or even one organisation could do it. The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission took years to interview 40,000 Kenyans. To build a database of the stories of millions would simply be overwhelming. However, we do have the internet and the unlimited resources that it provides. If we could get Kenyans to contribute their own stories and those of their relatives and friends, then we could begin to assemble a massive popular archive.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And the stories needn’t be solely about superhuman exploits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In fact, the most important contributions would be the tales of everyday living and survival that would shine a light on who the Kenyans are and how they experienced history.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span>&nbsp;I, for example, remember Cucu Nyawira's delight upon learning that Egypt, where, according to the Bible, Jesus' family had fled to to escape persecution, was actually in Africa. Also her patient skepticism when informed that people had walked on the moon. She also told me of granaries Kikuyus used to set aside aside after the harvest specifically for the poor and the disabled, challenging the idea that charity is a thing we learnt from the West.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It would undoubtedly be an extremely ambitious undertaking but one that I believe would be worth every effort. “In my culture, when the elderly die natural deaths we throw a big party and sing and dance and trade stories about the life they lived and the lives they touched,” tweeted political analyst and author, Nanjala Nyabola, recently. Nothing would be a more fitting tribute to Eunice Nyawira and the unseen millions like her to whom Kenya owes everything. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-1995136796588202122018-03-23T10:59:00.000+03:002018-03-23T12:53:24.906+03:00The Lies That Bind<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/How-Cambridge-Analytica-influenced-Kenyan-poll/1064-4349034-le7xbuz/index.html">recent revelations</a> about the role played by British spin doctors, Cambridge Analytica, in Uhuru Kenyatta’s campaigns during the last two elections in Kenya have caused a bit of an uproar. Though long rumored -and hotly denied by Jubilee Party mandarins – the confirmation delivered via hidden camera was jarring not only for the extent of their involvement, but also for their underhand methods.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, the fuss around Cambridge Analytica has tended to obscure the fact that, even without their involvement, spin and deception have been made into a way of conducting the nation’s business.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Take, for example, the recent online proclamations by the ever publicity-seeking Kenya Film Classification Board that it had bagged a global award, the grandly named Arch of Europe. According to <a href="https://twitter.com/EzekielMutua/status/975660497268813824">the citation</a>, the award was in recognition of the KFCB’s “immeasurable contribution to the business world” and its “high outstanding professionalism demonstrated by prestigious performance”. Sounds good, eh? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, a little digging turns up some unsavory facts that the Board’s CEO, Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, would rather you didn’t notice. The organization issuing the award, the Madrid-based Business Initiatives Directions, along with six other organizations, had been <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/2662-what-price-honor">investigated in 2014</a> by the Center for Investigative Reporting of Serbia (CINS) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and their awards found to be, in many cases “bogus, sold by unscrupulous organizations that prey on human vanity”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The investigation found that “giving” awards had become a lucrative enterprise. “The organizations that provide these awards are nearly always based in European Union countries and mostly market their awards to developing countries”. And the clue is in the word “market”. As the report states, while the organisations claim to do their research to find the best awardees “in reality in most cases they send out hundreds of email invitations and some even allow applicants to nominate themselves on organization websites. Anyone who replies, shows interest and agrees to pay gets an award.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Basically, KFCB may have simply bought itself an award and then taken to Twitter to parade it as a marker of excellence. And in case you were wondering, the CINS/OCCRP report found that such awards do not come cheap. “In Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 50 public institutions received these awards. Some paid for multiple awards at prices that ranged from € 2,000 to more than € 7,000 (US$ 2,500-9,300) per prize.” That means close to a million of your tax shillings may have been expended in assuaging the egos of the folks at KFCB.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lest one thinks that this is a unique case, a public statement has just been released by the Hamburg Media School, makers of the Oscar-nominated Kenyan film, Watu Wote, which apparently gives the lie to the KFCB’s and Dr. Mutua’s <a href="http://kfcb.co.ke/kfcb-attends-the-90th-oscars-academy-awards/">assertions</a>that the latter attended the 90th Oscars Academy Awards ceremony in the US earlier this month. “Dr. Mutua was not in attendance at the ceremony and did not participate in the Oscars with us. He never received an invitation,” says the statement, which was <a href="https://twitter.com/Watu_Wote/status/976905238509735936">posted on the film’s Twitter account</a>. It also says that a KFCB-sponsored screening of the movie in Las Vegas, again trumpeted by the Board as highlighting “opportunities available for investments in the film industry in Kenya”, was actually done in violation of the school’s copyright and without their permission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps Dr. Mutua has picked up this habit from his boss. As the saying goes, the fish rots from the head. Many will recall the "Mandela Prize" that President Kenyatta was <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001264453/magufuli-bags-mandela-peace-award-uhuru-the-democracy-one">awarded last December</a> for apparently demonstrating a true spirit of democracy when he accepted the Supreme Court to annul the August 8 election. “To put it simply, ‘the Mandela Prize’ is bogus,” concluded <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&amp;tl=en&amp;js=y&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.ledesk.ma%2Fdesintox%2Fque-vaut-le-prix-mandela-decerne-mohammed-vi%2F&amp;edit-text=">a 2016 investigation</a> by the Moroccan news website, Le Desk, after Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, “won” it that year. It is not to be confused with the legit <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/mandeladay/prize.shtml">UN Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize</a>, which awarded once every five years as a tribute to the outstanding achievements and contributions of two individuals from each gender.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenyatta’s “Prize” also came from a fishy outfit, the Paris-based Mandela Institute, which, despite its name, has nothing to do with the late Nelson Mandela other than the claim that its Honorary President, Olivier Stirn, was his friend. Stirn himself has <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-06/news/mn-138_1_french-political-system">a chequered past</a>, having been forced to resign in disgrace from the French cabinet in 1990 after he was caught hiring unemployed actors, students and day laborers to pose as an audience for senior Socialist Party speakers at a sparsely attended conference.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More recently, during the President’s state visit to Cuba, his spin doctors announced that the Cuban government had honoured his late father, Jomo Kenyatta, “as a towering figure in African and Caribbean liberation movement” by placing his bust at the Park of African Heroes in Havana. However, what they did not mention was that, as Dr Wandia Njoya has <a href="https://twitter.com/wmnjoya/status/974767542643363841?s=19">pointed out on Twitter</a>, the plaque on the bust doesn't mention fighting for freedom and, perhaps more importantly, that the busts there are sometimes <a href="http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-10-04/eternal-gratitude-to-the-cuban-people">donated by African governments themselves</a>. Crucially, there was no mention of who was paying for this particular bust.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So as we express our outrage at Cambridge Analytica’s corruption of our democracy, we must not deceive ourselves that what they were doing is somehow different from the everyday actions of our public officials. From <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/opinion/Corruption-Government-Kenya/440808-2766476-sjbriyz/index.html">fake wars against corruption</a>, to <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/features/2018/03/05/what-is-your-tribe-the-invention-of-kenyas-ethnic-communities/">our invented ethnicities</a> to the <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001263300/head-of-state-commendations-bring-dishonor-to-those-who-rightfully-deserved-them">farcical Head of State commendations</a>, Kenya is a state that was built on, and that is largely sustained by, lies and deceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-48890910692299974772018-02-18T17:46:00.000+03:002018-02-18T17:48:15.579+03:00Innocent Victim? Not Exactly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The last few weeks have been rather trying for Kenyan media. The government’s criminal overreaction to the mock swearing in of Raila Odinga did not end with the shut down of the three leading television stations for over a week. Even after they were allowed back on air, the Uhuru Kenyatta administration has continued to throw a tantrum, with the President chasing journalists out of one of his official engagements and the state singling out three from the Nation Media Group, Linus Kaikai, Larry Madowo and Ken Mijungu, for special attention, forcing them to seek protection from the courts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Faced with this onslaught, the media has been quick to don the costume of public interest and proceeded to play the part of innocent victim. In <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/09/africa/kenya-press-freedom-madowo/index.html">a piece published on the CNN website</a>, Madowo condemns the “shutting down [of] networks that have such a massive following [and] public trust … by a rogue government.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Our job as reporters is to record history, whether the government of the day approves of it or not,” he continues, declaring Kenya “one of Africa's beacons for vibrant media [which] should not be dimmed out by an administration intent on censorship of independent voices, reducing the country to just another African dictatorship where critical journalism is outlawed and reporters constantly fear for their lives.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Madowo deserves an Oscar for that performance. For while the government’s actions have been completely illegal and anti-democratic, outrageous in the extreme and deserving of full condemnation, Kenyan media has not behaved much better. The fact that he was forced to hawk his piece to CNN is telling. “This week, the @dailynation refused to print my column for the first time in nearly 4 years,” he had tweeted in explanation. In fact, a few days later, his column was to be cancelled entirely. And he wasn’t the only one targeted by the supposedly “vibrant media” which now seemed eager to do the government’s dirty work. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the eve of Odinga’s “inauguration”, <a href="https://businesstoday.co.ke/state-house-ntv-deal-collapsed/">a leaked internal memo</a> from Nation Media Group (NMG) Editor-in-Chief, Tom Mshindi, suggested that he and Kaikai, NTV’s General Manager, were “aligned” on not providing live coverage for the event. That was before Kaikai that evening, in his capacity as Chairman of Kenya Editors Guild, <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/01/30/editors-guild-alarmed-by-state-house-secret-orders-to-media_c1705824">blew the lid</a> off a secret meeting at State House between of “a section of media managers and select editors from the main media houses” and President Kenyatta, his deputy, William Ruto, the Attorney-General as well as Cabinet Secretaries for Interior and ICT. It was at this meeting that the media was ordered not to cover the Odinga event live.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ultimately, NTV did cover the event precipitating its being illegally switched off by the Communications Authority along with KTN and Citizen all of whom continued to stream their coverage on the internet. Kaikai would pay the price for his defiance as a quick reorganization at NTV has reportedly seen him sidelined on decisions regarding what content is broadcast and now even seems <a href="https://businesstoday.co.ke/fresh-twist-linus-kaikai-lands-top-job-royal-media/">set to leave the group</a> along with Madowo. At the moment, the two along with Ken Mijungu, the very people police were seeking to arrest, have been effectively banned from going on air and Madowo’s political talk show, Sidebar, appears to have been cancelled.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All this is part of a trend. Kenyan media houses have become adept at sacrificing top journalists to appease the government. Just as. in the current crisis, media owners and top management have been happy to throw journalists under the bus, so in 2014, The Standard fired 3 of its journalists after top editors were similarly summoned to State House over a <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000106828/how-government-spent-millions-on-luxury-retreat">story</a>the government disputed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2015, NMG fired world-famous cartoonist, Godfrey GADO Mwampembwa, after his cartoons drew the wrath of the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments. In 2016, Denis Galava was fired from his post as the Daily Nation’s Managing Editor for Special Projects, after he penned a New Year’s Day <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/editorial/Mr-President-get-your-act-together-this-year/440804-3018414-12i2x61z/index.html">editorial</a>that was, <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/01/20/nation-fires-editor-galava-over-editorial-criticising-uhuru_c1280305">according to The Star</a>, “deemed critical of President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Madowo’s notion that Kenya’s “vibrant” media conducts “critical journalism” is also quite misleading. We are talking here of establishments that are content to unquestioningly run <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/author/PSCU">press releases from State House as news</a>, a habit which left the media badly exposed a few weeks ago after a <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Uhuru-appointed-Unicef-global-champion-youth-empowerment/1056-4270354-3vu7ic/index.html">claim</a>by the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit that Kenyatta had been appointed a UNICEF global champion for youth empowerment turned out to be <a href="https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/955617843311243264">false</a>. Further, many will not have forgotten that this same media houses were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/11/kenyas-elections-show-how-the-media-has-sold-its-soul/?utm_term=.ac9316b78f33">happy to pocket millions of public shillings</a> for running illegal government advertisements during the campaign period. Or the role it played in allowing, and even encouraging, the delegitimization of civil society.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All this explains why many Kenyans have been ambivalent about supporting the media during the present onslaught. Poetic justice, some have called it, wondering why they should stand up for a media that does not stand up for them. There is a lesson for the media in all this. Protection does not come from courting the government, but rather from courting the people. In the end, as the Daily Nation’s own public editor <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/oped/opinion/Public-support-best-protection-for-press-freedom/440808-4287886-e4lenx/index.html">wrote</a>, it is the public that is “the best protector of press freedom”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="height: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">x</span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-44769987008123811012018-02-02T22:41:00.000+03:002018-02-02T22:48:50.399+03:00Kenya's Future Increasingly Looks Like Its Past<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;">In early 1965, after just a year of independence, Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta suspected Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was planning a coup against his government. Deep divisions within the ruling Kenya African National Union - between those wanting radical and populist change to the inherited colonial system and those who were intent on consolidating it and seeking more gradual change – had been exacerbated by the murder of radical Nominated MP, Pio Gama Pinto in late February.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Determined to eliminate the threat, Kenyatta sent the paramilitary General Service Unit of the Kenya Police Force into Luo Nyanza to look for weapons and to intimidate Odinga’s Luo base. As related by Charles Hornsby in his opus, <i>Kenya: A History Since Independence</i>, “there was a press blackout on their activities, which included house searches, beatings and rapes, which were only made public at the end of the month, when angry Luo MPs raised the issue in Parliament”. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Within a year, Odinga had been forced out of KANU and had set up his own political party in opposition, the Kenya Peoples Union. As Hornsby states, Odinga was betting “that Kenyatta and KANU would play by the rules and that the West would ensure they did so.” However, Kenyatta’s patrons were silent during the next three years which witnessed “more serious abuses than were conducted against a political party at any time before or since in Kenya’s history”. These included changes to the electoral system on the eve of, and rigging during, the Little General Election; branding Odinga as a threat to “national stability”; the mangling of the 7 year-old independence constitution to concentrate power in the President and eliminate all checks on it; the reintroduction of colonial-style detention without trial; and intimidation of both the judiciary and the press. The period ended with the murder of Tom Mboya, Kikuyu oathing, a massacre of Odinga supporters in Kisumu, the banning of the KPU and detention of Odinga and his allies.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Fast forward half a century and Jomo’s son, Uhuru Kenyatta, is President and Jaramogi’s son, Raila Odinga, stands accused of attempting to stage a coup. Once again, the latter has been demonized by the ruling party and dozens have been killed beaten and raped by the GSU in Luo Nyanza. The media is silenced, the courts ignored, the state accused of electoral malpractice including engineering last minute changes to electoral laws and a round up of Odinga’s allies is under way. A new constitution enacted just 7 years ago which imposed serious limitations on Presidential power is roundly ignored and institutions meant to be a check on it, including the parliament, are completely servile. All the while, Western powers are silent. Just as in the 60s, they have opted to side with the Kenyattas whom they consider the best bet for preserving the colonial system that safeguards their interests above those of ordinary Kenyans. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So how will this end? Is it likely that Kenyatta will have Odinga arrested for treason? After all, his allies have been charged with abetting treason and the courts may have a hard time convicting them if the person accused of actually committing treason is allowed to wander freely. But perhaps the intention is not to seek convictions but rather to send a message. Still, history suggests some action may be taken though it might not be as drastic or as harsh as a treason charge. The senior Odinga was subjected to two years in detention by the senior Kenyatta and then house arrest by Kenyatta’s successor, Daniel arap Moi. The latter has already been bandied about as a possibility by Jubilee hardliners.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Any arrest of Odinga would undoubtedly spark massive unrest in Nyanza but, just as in the 60s, the Kenyatta government has shown that it is not averse to killing large numbers of citizens in order to cling to power. Further, the likelihood of the international community interfering to stop such is miniscule. Rather than an ideological battleground of the Cold War of yesteryear, Kenya is today on the frontline of other wars against terrorists and Chinese domination. These concerns outweigh Kenyan lives.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Kenya has basically regressed 50 years in the last 7 months and the 2010 constitution’s promise of a democratic renewal is fast fading. If extinguished, history suggests Kenyans may be in for decades of brutal and kleptocratic rule. It will be a steep price for the country to pay for not learning from its past.<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-29239851707545910962018-01-19T15:17:00.002+03:002018-01-19T15:23:09.792+03:00Why Trump's "Shithole" Comments Are Nothing New<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ADDwhaA7U4/WmHjFHQV7UI/AAAAAAAAGFQ/_q9hOqj3_6s4yG5zueA9M9pglfMvr5qKACLcBGAs/s1600/gathara140118_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="800" height="544" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ADDwhaA7U4/WmHjFHQV7UI/AAAAAAAAGFQ/_q9hOqj3_6s4yG5zueA9M9pglfMvr5qKACLcBGAs/s640/gathara140118_small.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eric Kiraithe, must really be well paid. Being the official spokesman of the Kenyan Government, is, in the words of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6TiA4_7Rto">Jerry Maguire</a>, “an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege” that I’m sure he will never fully tell us about. We got a glimpse of what the job entails when the government sent him out this week to defend the indefensible: US President Donald Trump’s description of Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “shithole countries” and his declared preference for immigrants from Northern Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <a href="http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Kenya-no-problem-Trump-racist-remarks/2558-4269154-3226b0z/index.html">mental gymnastics Kiraithe had to engage in</a> were a spectacle to behold. No doubt trying to curry favor with the famously petty and vengeful Trump, he declared that Kenya had no problems with African countries being called “shitholes” but nonetheless supported the African Union in condemning the comments whose context, he claimed, the government was still studying “to see whether it is worth the attention”, even though it had already determined that they were not directed at Kenya.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Still, there perhaps was an easier, and perhaps less humiliating, way for Kiraithe and his minders to extricate themselves from the bind. Trump may be an ignorant, racist, pathetic excuse for a human being but if we are honest, his sentiments are not dissimilar to attitudes held by many of the “respectable” people lining up to condemn him in the West and even here in Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As any African applying for visa will tell you, the indignities visited upon us in the process make it plain that we are not exactly welcome. It is humiliating to have to demonstrate to strangers that one is not about to abandon one’s family and nation to live on the streets of Europe or America, to have them stand in judgment over your acceptability as human being. And that is just how the system treats those seeking a legal route for a temporary visit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The reaction to the so-called European migrant crisis which saw more than a million unwanted migrants and refugees from the middle east and Africa cross into Europe in 2015, shows the extremes that will be considered in order to turn them back. “Europe has decided to cooperate with Libyan authorities, knowing the kind of torture, abuses, detention that migrants and refugees are exposed to in Libya,” Amnesty International’s <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/europe-migrant-crisis/4177103.html">Maria Serrano told Voice of America</a> last month. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, the idea of a crisis is not extended to the nearly 12.5 million Europeans who are resident in a country not their own within the European Union, even when 95 percent of these are hosted in just six countries. It is only a crisis when they come from “shithole countries”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is not just Europeans. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Kenya in November declaring how he loves Africans, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-Time-to-increase-deportation-of-African-migrants-514604">seems to only love them when they stay at home</a>. Back in Israel, he has taken to branding African asylum seekers “infiltrators” is deporting thousands of them. In Libya, slave markets have re-opened with many of the same Africans Europe is turning away being treated as commodities. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But African citizens do not even need to try to leave the continent in order to experience the dehumanization associated with immigration. Kenya’s <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2014/04/somalis-in-kenya-are-available-for.html">abysmal treatment of refugees from Somalia</a> -who are crammed into crowded camps, forbidden from seeking work, regularly demonized as terrorists and even illegally forced back into the war zone across the border – is no less humiliating. Neither are the hoops Kenyans themselves – as well as other Africans - are forced to jump through when attempting to visit South Africa, formerly the continent’s largest economy, are no less humiliating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, Africans don’t even need to try to go outside their countries’ borders to be insulted or have heir humanity questioned. Hollywood as well as Western aid agencies and media regularly does it right in the comfort of our homes with their portrayal of Africa as a troubled, exotic paradise peopled by childishly simple, naïve beings unable to deal with the challenges of life and who need white saviors to rescue them from other white devils or from themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rounding out the parade of insulters are African elites, especially in the media and in politics, who have become our very own Uncle Toms, loyally regurgitating and fleshing out the worst stereotypes that the West has of us. Having opted not to reform the racist, extractive colonial states they inherited in the late 1950s and early 1960s, these elites have trouble seeing the humanity of the masses of citizens they prey on. So, like the Europeans before them, rather than fix dehumanizing political and economic systems, they try to beat and shame the natives into compliance with them, into accepting the space that the world has allocated to them at the back of the bus - which is the reason so many try to leave in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This brings us back to Trump and his comments. So should Kenyans be offended by them? You bet they should. But no more so than by the treatment and representations Africans have to endure every day from a world that has decided that they come from “shithole countries” and so must be shitty people. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And the supreme irony of it is, up till less than a century ago, Africans were quite content to stay on the continent. It was shitty people from other places who came here and forced them out.&nbsp; It was shitty people who took them to places like Haiti, where, after they fought for and won their freedom, more shitty people blockaded and invaded them and created the very conditions today that a shitty American President, blissfully unaware of this, today disparages.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, it is an irony that is completely lost on Kiraithe and the folks he speaks for.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-90930217924673494712018-01-12T14:05:00.000+03:002018-01-12T14:05:22.383+03:00SportPesa: Kenya Should Stop Betting On Devils<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/talkup/Gor-Mahia-AFC-Leopards-and-begging-bowls/441392-4252552-k9o13nz/index.html" target="_blank">piece in the Daily Nation</a>, Roy Gachuhi speaks of how the failure to build strong institutions in Kenyan sport has left even the most successful teams vulnerable to the financial shocks caused by the withdrawal of a major sponsor. He is referencing the troubles caused by sports betting firm SportPesa’s pulling all its sponsorship of local and national teams following the failure of its legal challenge against the government’s move to raise taxes on betting profits.&nbsp; It is a move that may ground a large number of the country’s favorite sports brands.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Fifty years down the line, AFC Leopards and Gor Mahia should be evaluating the suitability of the many organizations lining up to associate their brand with them,” Gachuhi says. He also reminds us that “Kenya’s sports politics closely mirror our national politics”.&nbsp;One obvious similarity is the dependence on the dirty money that is generated by selling false dreams to poor people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Moses Kemibaro, a digital marketing professional based in Nairobi, SportPesa, the largest of them all, <a href="http://www.moseskemibaro.com/2015/05/27/sportpesa-is-blowing-up-as-kenyas-largest-online-sports-betting-service/" target="_blank">rakes in over Sh300 million a month</a>. A GeoPoll survey of youth between the ages of 17-35 in sub-Saharan Africa found Kenya had the highest number of youth who were frequently gambling and that they spent Sh5000 a month on the habit, the highest on the continent. This in a country where, <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Number-of-Kenyans-earning-more-than-Sh100-000/3946234-2901806-3pjv15/index.html" target="_blank">according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics</a>, three-quarters of those in formal employment earn under Sh50,000 a month.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the sponsorships whose loss many are bemoaning are a small fraction of the billions being taken from millions of poor people who are fed the illusion that sports betting is, as SportPesa’s slogan goes, “Made of Winners”. Only the betting companies make money when bets are lost, not when they are won.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But what they make is a pittance, and the suffering they cause is negligible, when compared to the outrageous fortunes and misery generated by the, to borrow Hilary Clinton’s phrase, “basket of deplorables” to whom we’ve mortgaged our national political life. &nbsp;They have taken to a whole new level the art of throwing around a relatively tiny bit of cash in exchange for the chance to make gazillions. Presidential election campaigns <a href="http://www.africapedia.com/2017/06/13/campaign-financing-africa-kenya-election/" target="_blank">spend an estimated Sh5 billion</a> which, including all the other races down the order, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000074352/campaigns-could-cost-sh36-billion" target="_blank">could add up to Sh36 billion</a>. This is undoubtedly a lot of money. But considering that the country is estimated to lose Sh600 billion from corruption each year and that a large chunk of that is pocketed by the politicians in power, you can see how it works out to be a good deal.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why must we feed the baser natures within society in order to be allowed a few crumbs for its better sides? Why is it necessary to procure resources for our sport from industries that sacrifice millions of youthful futures? Or to offer up our sovereignty, wealth and even lives to scoundrels in return for patronage posing as “development”?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think it is actually a good thing that SportPesa has pulled the sponsorship. A deal with the Devil is not how we should seek to support our sportspeople. And maybe once the band aid is removed, we can we will be able to see and deal with the real, festering source of our public woes. The money that companies like SportPesa pump into sport tends to paper over the state’s under-investment in sport as well as its preying on athletes as was graphically illustrated <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/The-scandal-of-Kenya-s-Rio-Olympics/1056-3343980-kvao27z/index.html" target="_blank">during the 2016 Olympics</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But there again, our deals with devils, this time within government, stand in the way. Sadly, we won’t be exorcising the demons in Parliament or in State House anytime soon. And even if we did, there are others pretending to be angels of light waiting to take their place. Like with SportPesa, we need to change the terms of the deal and radically raise the bar for what is acceptable in terms of governance.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No more false promises. We must demand tangible action, whether it is to improve the lot of the sports fraternity of to reform the electoral system or to implement the report of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Report. To do this, we must be willing to risk the political class withdrawing the few parochial benefits it offers just as SportPesa has done. But if we are firm and refuse to succumb to the blackmail, the rewards would be much greater than what we have become accustomed to settling for.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now that’s a gamble worth taking.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="height: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-4585452725890590502018-01-05T11:09:00.000+03:002018-01-08T22:08:03.390+03:00Kenya's Road Deaths: It's The System, Stupid.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenyans can be amazing in their self-contradictions. Take matters death, for example. When our politicians pass on, they are immediately raptured, in the popular imagination, into a heavenly pantheon and cleansed of all earthly sin. Not so regular folk.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following the spike in road crashes in December which have <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/12/31/bloody-december-36-perish-in-another-salgaa-accident-on-new-years-eve_c1691164">claimed over 200 lives</a>, many have not been shy about placing the blame on those who have perished, either labeling drivers drunk, undisciplined or careless, or branding passengers as silent lambs willingly going to the slaughter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have often wondered about this seeming compulsion to blame ourselves for the misfortunes we endure, even when it is manifest that their fundamental causes lie elsewhere. When the politicians in government steal from us, we blame ourselves for electing them in the first place, as if the act of voting then justifies stealing. When the same politicians use the police or militia for violence to secure their positions on the bargaining table, we blame ourselves for our tribalism and bloodthirst. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, when the state <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/features/2017/11/14/the-black-spot-why-the-kenyan-road-system-is-designed-to-kill/">designs and maintains a murderous road transport system</a>, we blame ourselves for its very predictable consequences. It is our failure to obey its dictates that is to blame, we are told, even though we know that following the rules still gets you killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TV presenter and columnist, Larry Madowo, ably demonstrates this confusion in <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/dn2/I-am-terrified-of-driving-at-night-/957860-4249526-t6oljjz/index.html">his latest offering</a> on the dangers of using public transport for long-distance travel at night. After acknowledging that he is one of a privileged minority that does not need to do this he adds that “for millions of Kenyans for whom that is not an option, they are unknowingly putting themselves in danger every time they board a bus or a matatu and hope they get to their destination in one piece.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sounds reasonable, no? Then a few lines later, he hits us with this: “Taking any public transport in Kenya is to knowingly put yourself in danger.” Huh?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He proceeds to reel off a list the usual suspects, from tired, drunk and unqualified drivers trying to meet impossible targets to matatu crews colluding with gangsters to rob passengers, to mechanically defective vehicles and their owners - the very cops turning a blind eye. He notes that there are no regularly enforced “minimum standards for crew discipline, vehicle maintenance and roadworthiness” and few consequences for anyone failing to play their part. It is as close a description of a shattered system as you are likely to get.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet despite this, Larry still seems to believe that the system is fundamentally sound. “All this carnage can be eliminated without introducing a single new law but simply enforcing the existing ones and shutting down all the avenues for bribery.” Once again, the problem, as he sees it, is the failure to beat the native out of the Kenyan, to force him to comply with a broken system.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This kind of thinking has very colonial roots. The British proclaimed that they came on a civilizing mission and used extreme brutality to try to beat the natives into shape. For example, in his book Kenya: A History Since Independence, Charles Hornsby describes the European settler view of roots of the Mau Mau war as “unrelated to economic or political oppression … they lay in the Kikuyu’s inability to adapt to the demands of modernization”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lawyer Pheroze Norwojee says "tyranny is very unoriginal". Those who inherited the colonial state after them, retained the same view of the sanctity of even oppressive rules and of Africans as the problem. As Jomo Kenyatta asked Kenyans in the lead up to independence, “if you cannot obey the present [colonial] laws, how will you be able to obey our own laws when we have them?” Thus, instead of reforming the oppressive regime, they tried to force the people to comply with it. As quoted by Hornsby, the late Masinde Muliro described it thus in 1967: "Today we have a black man's Government, and the black man's Government administers exactly the same regulations, rigorously, as the colonial administration used to do."&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is this approach that has created the predictable consequences and contradictions evident in our political system today, for our humanity will not simply fade away quietly. Similarly, the attempt to force road users to comply with a horrendous road system will continue to generate seemingly chaotic and suicidal, but always very rational, behavior. In the end blaming Kenyans, rather than the system, will always lead to oppressive responses that try to fix Kenyans rather than policy fixes to the system. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet the fact is we need comprehensive change, both in the institutional design of how we manage road transport as well as in the rules those institutions are tasked with implementing and enforcing. That will require new thinking, new systems, and yes, Larry, new laws. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New laws on who can own matatus, for example. New laws on how we respond to road crashes, perhaps a requirement that they all be investigated and lessons learnt. New laws to prevent the National Transport and Safety Authority understating the extent of the carnage on our roads, which they do <a href="http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_traffic/countrywork/ken/en/">by nearly 80 percent</a>. Most importantly, new laws on whom we hold accountable for the failures on our roads. Simply blaming the dead and dying victims on our roads will not do.</span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-87920964312640440942017-12-02T20:22:00.002+03:002017-12-02T20:22:24.989+03:00Mugabe Is Gone; Mugabeism Remains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'n'I a-liberate Zimbabwe.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So sang the late, great, Jamaican reggae star, Bob Marley in 1979, just a year before the country was finally won its independence from white rule. Today, with Robert Mugabe forced to resign as President after being fired by his party and with Zimbabwe inaugurating a new leader, the questions many will ask is whether this is another moment of liberation – only this time liberation from the erstwhile liberator of 1980- and what a post-Mugabe future might look like.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Soon we’ll find out who is<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The real revolutionary<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the last 37 years, under Mugabe’s Presidency - who at 93 was the world’s oldest head of state and second only to Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea as its longest serving non-royal ruler- Zimbabwe has gone from being southern Africa’s bread basket to the region’s basket case. Mugabe himself, once an icon of anticolonialism and, with his seven degrees, great hope of African renaissance, has become the butt of continental jokes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The path the country and its former ruler have trod is depressingly familiar. An independence hero who proceeds to govern his country as a personal fiefdom, enriching himself and his family, destroying all internal opposition, impoverishing the population and committing many of the same abuses the anti-colonial struggle was meant to put an end to. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his early years in power, initially as Prime Minister, Mugabe was widely praised for expanding social services, including building schools and hospitals. However, <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2017/11/the-55-year-fight-for-kenya.html">like others across the continent</a>, his government failed early on to deal with the legacy of the country’s colonial past and the issue of whether to reform the state they inherited or whether, as Panashe Chigumadzi put it in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/opinion/behind-the-comparison-of-zumas-south-africa-and-mugabes-zimbabwe.html">her article for the New York Times</a>, “conform to the historic compromises that brought them into power”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, like his counterparts, Mugabe opted to shelve the issue and concentrate on consolidating his own grip on power. Facing internal dissent, he launched a brutal crackdown in the predominantly Ndebele speaking region of Matabeleland, most of whom were supporters of his rival Joshua Nkomo, in which according to some estimates <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-05-18-mugabes-hand-in-zim-massacres-exposed/">more than 20,000 people were killed</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The unresolved colonial legacy - especially over the starkly unequal distribution of land - would prove a useful tool in later years. In the 1990s, he would successfully divide the opposition by offering veteran of the independence war tracts of land and demonizing civil society and labor unions, as tools of the West. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a strategy he employed again in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s to buff up his revolutionary credentials by launching a disastrous land redistribution programme which targeted the country’s tiny land-owning white minority. Officially sanctioned land invasions, violence and continued government threats forced most large scale white farmers off the land and agricultural production plummeted<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873296">. The country went from being a net food exporter to </a><a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/zimbabwe-pleads-1-5bn-food-aid-prevent-mass-starvation-1542917">requiring food aid</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the average Zimbabwean has <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/world/2017-08-24-grace-unplugged-zimbabwes-imploding-world/">continued to suffer the effects of economic decline</a>, there has been continued splurging on a small coterie of officials and ruling party loyalists. Last year, the government <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/28/africa/mugabe-92nd-birthday/index.html">reportedly</a>spent $800,000 on festivities to mark Mugabe’s 92 birthday and his family <a href="http://www.africametro.com/news/first-lady-grace-mugabe-wealth-exposed-mansions-farms-overseas-villas">has done very well for itself</a> over the years. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873342">His wife, 40 years his junior and who has earned the nickname “Gucci Grace” for </a><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/grace-mugabe-on-r100m-spending-spree-7217505">her lavish shopping sprees</a>, made no secret of her desire to keep the presidency within the family when he eventually passed on.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I don't want my people to be tricked <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">By mercenaries.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Will the intervention by the Zimbabwean military -the coup that was no coup- change this? <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/zimbabwe/2017-11-17/mugabe-gone-zimbabwes-dictatorship-will-remain?cid=int-now&amp;pgtype=hpg&amp;region=br2">Not likely</a>, despite the military’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/15/the-situation-has-moved-to-another-level-zimbabwe-army-statement-in-full">declaring</a>its intention is to “pacify a degenerating political, social and economic situation”. It claimed to target, and has been rounding up “criminals around [Mugabe] who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice”. Yet the same army was solidly behind Mugabe throughout his years of abuse - it was the North Korean trained Fifth<sup> </sup>Brigade that was responsible for the massacres in Matabeleland locally referred to as “Gukurahundi” (a Shona term that loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains"). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, this was largely an internal struggle within the ruling party, ZANU-PF, over who is to succeed the aging dictator. the immediate spark for the current crisis was Mugabe’s decision to fire his long-time ally and now replacement as President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, from the vice presidency, to pave the way for his wife to succeed him. The military seemed reluctant to openly intervene, its head, Gen Constantino Chiwenga, and 90 senior officers initially only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/13/zimbabwe-army-chief-warns-military-could-step-in-over-party-purge">demanding</a>a halt to the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zimbabwe-politics/zimbabwes-mugabe-widens-purge-clearing-wifes-succession-path-idUSKBN1D726I">purge of Mnagangwa’s allies within the party</a>. Mnangagwa himself is no angelic figure, attracting the moniker "The Crocodile" for his actions during the independence struggle and as a reminder of his alleged role -which he denies- in the Gukurahundi massacres, as Minister for State Security and Chairman of the Joint High Command, and in masterminding attacks on opposition supporters after 2008 election.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873379"><br /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873379">This then is a dispute, not over how Zimbabwe is run, but over who runs it. </a>In June, University of Zimbabwe Political Science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure, <a href="http://harare24.com/index-id-opinion-zk-63371.html">when asked about the possibility of military coup</a> if Mnangagwa did not succeed Mugabe. He responded thus: “It will be restricted to the elite level. This level does not involve you or me or the 13 million Zimbabweans. It is an elite struggle.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The people now jostling to replace Mugabe have been more than content to benefit from the policies he has pursued, even when those came at the expense of long-suffering Zimbabweans. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is instructive too that the record of military takeovers in Africa and across the world gives little cause for hope that this particular one will quickly lead to a restoration of genuine democracy in Zimbabwe. From Nigeria to Egypt to Burma, the record shows that once military generals get a taste of power, they are loathe to give it up. Further, they tend to govern as badly, or even worse, than the civilian despots they overthrow. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Amid talk of the military setting up a transitional government to return the country to civilian rule and prepare fresh elections, one senior opposition politician <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/17/africa/zimbabwe-unrest/index.html">told CNN</a> that “this takeover was planned a long time ago by Emmerson Mnangagwa and secret discussions did take place with opposition about a succession plan including forcing out Mugabe… What you saw yesterday at State House [published images of Mugabe speaking with military chiefs] was acting." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This ties in with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/zimbabwe-mugabe-farming/">a Reuters investigation</a> in September that found that Mnangagwa and other political players, including former prime minister Morgan Tzivangirai, with had already been positioning themselves for this possibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The report, which cites “politicians, diplomats and a trove of hundreds of documents from inside Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organization (CIO)” says that in the event of Mugabe’s leaving office, “Mnangagwa… envisages cooperating with Tsvangirai to lead a transitional government for five years with the tacit backing of some of Zimbabwe’s military and Britain. These sources leave open the possibility that the government could be unelected.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“This unity government would pursue a new relationship with thousands of white farmers who were chased off in violent seizures of land approved by Mugabe in the early 2000s. The farmers would be compensated and reintegrated, according to senior politicians, farmers and diplomats. The aim would be to revive the agricultural sector, a linchpin of the nation’s economy that collapsed catastrophically after the land seizures,” it continues.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873430">Once again, the focus would appear to be on appeasing the country’s former colonial rulers at the expense of its citizenry. </a>Rather than seek to comprehensively restructure the state so it works for all its people, Zimbabwe’s would-be rulers seem bent on resuscitating the same “historic compromises” that have been at the root of the country’s malaise.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">We'll 'ave to fight (we gon' fight), we gonna fight (we gon' fight),<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">We'll 'ave to fight (we gon' fight), fighting for our rights!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rather than an agreement to restore the power of elites, any transitional government should pursue a genuine broad-based national reflection on the nature of the Zimbabwean state and force the country to face up to the demons of its past, rather than hide from them. For all his many faults, it must be acknowledged that Mugabe’s attempts at redressing historical injustice, though pursued for less than noble reasons, struck a chord with many ordinary Zimbabweans (<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/mugabe-hero-of-african-liberation-1525765">and many ordinary Africans beyond</a>). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873497"><br /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk498873497">Apart from restructuring the state, Zimbabwe will also need to build the necessary infrastructure to keep it accountable to the people. </a>This includes a free and independent media -it has been great to see international networks allowed to report openly once again- and <a href="http://www.osisa.org/openspace/zimbabwe/civil-societys-present-and-future-role-zimbabwe">a vibrant civil society.</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The current situation, while not ideal, thus still offers a valuable opportunity for Zimbabwean leaders to do right by their people. Whether they will take it remains to be seen.</span></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-75737912818149964872017-11-04T11:50:00.000+03:002017-11-04T11:50:13.711+03:00The 55-year Fight For Kenya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">Two elections in two months has not settled Kenya’s political crisis. But the impasse is not really about who will sit in State House. It’s a deeper question: it’s about who owns Kenya – its citizens or a historically entrenched political elite. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">President, Uhuru Kenyatta, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001258851/uhuru-kenyatta-wins-repeat-election-with-7-4-million-votes">won the second edition easily</a> after his main opponent, Raila Odinga, withdrew from the race citing the inability of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to carry out a credible poll. In fact, the reason the election was being done afresh was that the Supreme Court had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/kenyan-supreme-court-annuls-uhuru-kenyatta-election-victory">annulled the August 8 version</a>, accusing the IEBC of acting as if the Elections Act and the Constitution did not exist. His refusal to participate in last Thursday’s contest has now precipitated a deep political crisis.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Some have proposed that it is nothing more than a dispute between two of Kenya’s <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2016/09/mali-ya-kuuma.html">famously gluttonous and power-hungry politicians</a>, each accusing the other of trying to get power through fraudulent means. Others <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/in-kenya-politics-split-on-ethnic-divide/a-37442394">blame the ethnicization of Kenya’s politics</a> and the deep tribal faults within Kenyan society. Still others maintain that the country’s winner-take-all political system, which does not allow those rejected by voters <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/10/31/ncck-proposes-creation-of-prime-minister-opposition-leader-posts_c1661983">a cushy and safe landing</a>. In all this, the fate of individual politicians and of the country’s constitution takes on huge importance.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And yet all these diagnoses fail to identify the central conflict that lies at the heart of and connects all these issues – and that is the struggle to bend the country’s colonial and extractive state to the whims of a new and progressive constitution.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is a war that has been silently waged for at least 55 years. In the run up to Independence in 1963, the two main African parties, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) premiered the main themes and power conflicts that were to dominate Kenya’s attempts to deal with the colonial state. <a href="https://learning.uonbi.ac.ke/courses/GPR203_001/document/Property_Law_GPR216-September,_2014/Articles/Okoth-Ogendo_Constitutional_Change_in_Kenya_since_Independence_nnnnn.pdf">According to the late Prof Hastings Okoth-Ogendo</a>, KANU, the more popular of the two, prioritized the transfer of power over reform of the state, while KADU, which had already lost an election to its rival, was more focused in the limitation of that power in the interests of ethnic minorities. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In 1962, at the second Lancaster House constitutional conference, KADU <a href="http://www.katibainstitute.org/Archives/images/banners/further/MAXON-Constitution-Making%20in%20Contemporary%20Kenya.pdf">insisted on a constitution</a> that was broadly similar to the one the country was to adopt 48 years later. It established a Bill of Rights, created regional assemblies and government in an effort to devolve power from the center. KANU, on the other hand, reluctantly acquiesced, reasoning that when the party inevitably won power through the ballot box, it would be free to change the constitution. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And that’s what indeed happened. In less than a decade after independence, the constitution would be so mangled through amendments that in 1969, it was officially recognized as a different constitution.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Writing in 1992, current Attorney General, Prof Githu Muigai, <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2009/08/do-we-really-need-new-constitution.html">explains</a>:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">“The colonial order had been one monolithic edifice of power that did not rely on any set of rules for legitimization. When the Independence constitution was put into place it was completely at variance with the authoritarian administrative structures that were still kept in place by the entire corpus of public law. Part of the initial amendments therefore involved an attempt - albeit misguided - to harmonise the operations of a democratic constitution with an undemocratic and authoritarian administrative structure. Unhappily instead of the latter being amended to fit the former, the former was altered to fit the latter with the result that the constitution was effectively downgraded.”</blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In short, under KANU, the colonial state and its logic of extraction of resources from the many to enrich the few -initially British colonials, but now a similarly tiny African political elite -prevailed and undid the constitution. What followed was an “eating” binge as politicians and senior officials and their families and friends grabbed whatever they could lay their hands on.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">By the late 1980s, the looting and oppression had sparked a reaction from citizen groups, media and churchmen which featured <a href="http://mobile.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/Ghai-unites-factions/1950774-2058244-format-xhtml-iddy03z/index.html">a persistent push for a new constitution</a>, even in the face of violent government crackdowns as well as state-led attempts to co-opt and hollow out their demands. The popular agitation came to fruition in August 2010 when the current constitution was promulgated which essentially was a reset to 1962.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet the colonial state did not just fade away. It had to contend with this new challenge and, at least initially, the political elite was happy to pretend to play along for as long as their position at the top was not seriously challenged. The more egregious aspects of the state that the constitution now abolished, were simply renamed and allowed to hide in plain sight: the hated provincial administration rather than being abolished, simply <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Constitution-Provincial-Commissioners-Governors/1056-2849094-bjd894/index.html">changed titles but was retained intact</a>; the police, though nominally declared to be operationally independent, never actually behaved like they were -they still remained “a citizen containment squad” as <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/245815329/Ransley-Report">the Ransley report</a>had described them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Though cloaking itself in the cloth of the constitution, the state refused to reform. Under Uhuru Kenyatta, it retained its authoritarian character but with a fresh, likable face. But all through, its violence was never far below the surface as was witnessed in the aftermath of its bungled responses to terrorist attacks such as the on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in September 2013, when the government <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2014/04/somalis-in-kenya-are-available-for.html">scapegoated entire communities</a> to cover up its failures. and, more recently, in the brutal crackdown on people protesting the two elections in which nearly 70 people have died.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">On August 8, the elite embarked on what they assumed would be another coronation of their chosen one. Everything was in place, <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/State-to-deploy-180-000-police/1064-3919494-115rga2/index.html">including 180,000 policemen</a> to take care of troublemakers in opposition strongholds as well as a carefully constructed plot and narrative. It wasn’t the first time they were doing this. As Stanley Macharia, proprietor of the largest broadcast media network in the region, <a href="http://www.kdrtv.com/sk-macharia-claims-that-raila-won-the-2007-matiba-in-1992-but-denied-their-victory/">told the Kenyan Senate</a> last year, in all five elections held since the return of multiparty competition, in only one -in 2002- had the presidency gone to the person with the most votes.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Supreme Court annulment of the August election, therefore, came as a real shock to the elite and was the first real attempt to use the 2010 constitution to challenge the power and status of the elite as the ultimate owners of the state. The response was quick and effective: legislative changes to virtually <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/09/29/jubilee-tames-supreme-court-iebc-in-amended-law_c1643921">make it impossible for the Court to nullify another election</a>, threats to the judges, and a sham election to sanitize what the Supreme Court had impugned. Soon Uhuru Kenyatta’s supporters were <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/09/30/be-a-dictator-to-save-kenya-jubilee-vice-chair-david-murathe-advises_c1644625">extolling the benefits of a “benevolent dictator”</a>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is within the context of this historically frustrated effort to bring the colonial state to heel that we must locate the current political impasse. It must not be made out to be about the Luo vs the Kikuyu (although there is an aspect of that) or Kenyatta vs Raila (although that matters too) or election winners vs election losers (a much less convincing argument).<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The real question is whether the wenyenchi (the owners of the nations) will give up their control of the state to the wananchi (the people of the nation); whether they will allow the constitution to dismantle and remake the colonial state into one that works for all Kenyans.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">History does not offer much encouragement. However, as the low turnout (even the highest estimates come in at under 40%) for the repeat election suggested, there is broad agreement across the country on the need for elections to adhere to constitutional standards of being free, fair, simple, verifiable, transparent and credible. One <a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2017/09/84-pc-kenyans-want-polls-october-17-infotrak/">poll</a>showed that even in Kenyatta’s heartland, more than half of the people were happy with the Supreme Court’s decision to annul the poll.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The politicians are out of touch with the people. Their brinksmanship demonstrates that they are yet to learn the lessons of the 60s and that they cannot be trusted not to repeat the same mistakes their fathers’ made.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Which leads us to the question of what should happen now. There is undoubtedly a need to resolve the immediate political crisis and generate consensus on how to address the longer term issues. Talks, as have been proposed, between Kenyatta and Odinga would be critical to this but, as noted above, cannot be left solely to them. the involvement of other sectors of society such as civil society, the media and the religious establishment both as mediators and participants in their own right would help lay a framework that is not solely dictated by the interests of the two main protagonists.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The goal should be to establish a roadmap to a resolution of the crisis including an agreed forum for a comprehensive national dialogue which would address not just the immediate manifestations of the crisis but, more importantly, deal with the unfinished business of reforming the colonial state and addressing its legacy of abuse, marginalisation and impoverishment. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Kenya faces much more than an electoral crisis. For over half a century, the contestation over who controls the state has been allowed to take precedence over the need to reform that state so it works for not just a few, but for all its citizens. That must now change.<o:p></o:p></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-63025033585043248512017-09-01T23:05:00.000+03:002017-09-05T23:02:10.272+03:00Why Kenyans Must Keep Their Feet Firmly On The Ground<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Kenyans are given to bouts of euphoria. Once ranked as the most optimistic people in the world, it is a society almost congenitally programmed to look on the bright side of life and to seek out silver linings on even the darkest of clouds. It is famously the land of “Hakuna Matata”, which for anyone who’s watched Disney’s The Lion King can recite, is “a problem-free philosophy”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our irrational exuberance is once again bubbling up to surface in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict that annulled President Uhuru Kenyatta’s barely three-week old re-election. In a sense, it is understandable. It has been a tense time, filled with trepidation, after yet another rapturous voting day, invested with all the hope for better days the country could muster. This is despite the knowledge that although the country has held regular elections throughout its 50 years of independence, they have never resulted in truly meaningful, lasting change.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even the 2002 election – perhaps the most ecstatic of them all, given it was bringing the curtain down on the 24-year despotic and kleptocratic reign of Daniel arap Moi – only inaugurated Mwai Kibaki’s turn to eat. Pretty soon, the Kenyans who had been going around effecting citizen arrests on corrupt cops in the belief all had changed, were treated to a rude shock when reports of grand corruption at the highest level began to surface with increasing regularity. So much so, that the President’s own anti-graft czar had to flee the country. Corrupt ministers are "eating like gluttons" and "vomiting on the shoes" of donors, </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3893625.stm"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">declared the British High Commissioner, Edward Clay</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Anyway, back to the Supreme Court ruling. Similarly to the 2002 poll, the election that the court has just voided was manifestly full of irregularities. However, 15 years ago it did not much matter. The vote against Moi’s handpicked successor – ironically the current incumbent – was so overwhelming that the regime had little choice other than to concede. In any case, electoral reform at the time had mainly consisted of a “gentleman’s agreement” that allowed the opposition to nominate some of the members of the electoral commission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The integrity of the process today matters much more than it did a decade and a half ago. Elections are much more closely fought and the electoral infrastructure is much more elaborate. Methods for stealing them have also become more intricate and difficult to detect.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">After a dispute over the 2007 presidential election led to violence that killed over 1300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more, a commission led by South African judge Johann Kriegler proposed a raft of reforms to the electoral system, including the electronic transmission of results from polling stations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Five years later, despite a new constitution, few of those reforms had actually been implemented. During the election, a hastily and dubiously procured system for biometrically identifying voters and electronically transmitting results failed (or was made to fail) across the country. Further, there were allegations that the election had been hacked. If that sounds familiar, it’s because pretty much the same thing happened this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">However, by the time Kenyans went to the polls nearly a month ago, laws governing the electoral process had been passed and largely clarified by the courts. On voting day, the biometric systems seemed to have worked but not the electronic transmission. As counting proceeded, figures started scrolling across our TV screens courtesy of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headquarters. Figures seemed to show a constant and consistent lead by President Kenyatta over his closest rival, Raila Odinga.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The figures, which the IEBC would disown as mere "statistics" when their validity was questioned, were the first sign that something had gone seriously wrong. Thereafter, </span><a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170901-kenya-court-ruling-election-observer-industry-missions?ref=tw"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">despite the verdicts of international observers</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, led by former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, when the IEBC could not produce the scanned forms on which the results were based, it became clear that the election was far from credible. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The appeal to the Supreme Court in 2013 had been dismissed in its entirety, with the court establishing </span><a href="https://www.theelephant.info/future/2017/08/24/the-supreme-court-versus-the-court-of-public-opinion-why-raila-odingas-second-petition-matters/"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">an impossibly high standard of proof</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> which seemed to ensure a presidential election would never be reversed. Four of the six judges who issued the widely-rubbished, unanimous judgment, are still on the court. Perhaps this is why the opposition initially said that although it wasn't accepting the results, it would not be taking its case to the court. Following a change of heart, they did file a petition, which to everyone's surprise, was upheld.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The annulment is a very big deal and definitely worth celebrating. Along with overturning an injustice and reinforcing Kenya’s democratic credentials, by cementing the Supreme Court’s credibility, it has made future 2008-type post-presidential-poll violence much less likely. For once, Kenya the state has stood up for Kenyans, and that is huge. But we should be careful not to get carried away.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">First, there were problems with the court declaration itself. One of the allegations that had been put forward by the petitioners was that the incumbent had abused his office by using public resources and officials to campaign. The judges seemed to gloss over this when they found no evidence of wrongdoing despite glaring proof.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Further, the pronouncements of Kenya’s accession to the league of mature democracies were not only premature when the now disgraced Chair of the IEBC made them as he declared Kenyatta the president-elect; they are premature today. The judgement is a giant leap forward but one decision does not a democracy make.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It just creates possibilities for a better, more accountable electoral system. However, Kenyans have a tendency to want to persist in these giddy moments of possibility rather than to do the hard work of translating them into reality. &nbsp;Sadly, as we have seen with the 2003 election of Kibaki, can, if not seized, also inaugurate a much less desirable state of affairs.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Of immediate concern is the potential for a backlash from an Executive stung by what it considers to be a judicial uprising.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"If you rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it," the late authoritarian Cabinet Minister, John Michuki, warned us, after the government </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4765250.stm"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">raided the country’s second-largest media group</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in 2006. Kenyans cannot afford to be complacent. President Kenyatta has just been rattled and he is threatening to bite. Already, he has taken to calling the Supreme Court judges "wakora" or bandits and his lawyer has described the ruling as a judicial coup. "[Chief Justice David] Maraga and his thugs have decided to cancel the election. Now I am no longer the president-elect. I am the serving president... Maraga should know that he is now dealing with the serving president," he </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41123949"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">reportedly</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">threatened on Friday. “We have a problem with our judiciary but regardless we respect [their decision]. But we shall revisit,” he declared ominously a day later. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Whether it’s Kenyatta or Odinga who gets elected in two-months’ time, the independent judiciary will probably itself be the target of an Executive branch used to getting its way. However, with his Jubilee party in control of both houses of Parliament, Kenyatta will pose a particularly grave threat. History has taught us that great gains can be quickly reversed. Kenya still has a long way to go before it can get rid of its entrenched culture of impunity and become a society that truly caters for the needs of all its people, not the desires of a few at the very top.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Finally, another election has to be held within two months. Kenya is </span><a href="https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/22299-kenya-and-2-other-countries-which-have-nullified-presidential-election"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">only the third country in the world</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, after the Ukraine and Austria, to have the courts annul a presidential election. In the other two repeat elections, the incumbent won. Now, that itself is not a problem. The Supreme Court has rightly said, who wins matters less than how that win is secured. There is little time to make significant changes to the electoral infrastructure which means there are few guarantees that the same illegalities and irregularities that led to the annulment won't crop up again. Ensuring that Kenya does not end up where it started will require vigilance from all players, including any egg-faced internationals returning to observe and report on the election. The media should set up independent tallying centres and be prepared to call the election, rather than simply regurgitate the numbers and "statistics" coming from the IEBC.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Kenya is not out of the woods yet. The passions and terror that have been on display over the last few months have not gone away. They continue to simmer away just below the surface. While the Supreme Court has reduced the risk of a violent explosion, it has not completely eliminated it. That can only be accomplished through honestly addressing the the problems of our past and finishing the task of implementing the constitution.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">The judgement shows what that constitution makes possible but it would be grossly unfair to heap the burden of actuating it on the shoulders of seven judges. Kenyans must demand that the other independent state agencies, from the National Police Service to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, start to behave and conduct themselves in the manner envisaged by the constitution, not as lackeys of the Executive. Kenyans must realize that the people are the ultimate custodians</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">&nbsp;of the supreme law and even as they celebrate, they should be rolling up their sleeves.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-58368532562122700012017-08-31T20:00:00.000+03:002017-08-31T20:00:53.217+03:00Why Kenyan Supreme Court Judges Should Avoid Sausages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made” is a quip regularly and mistakenly attributed to Otto von Bismarck, the famous Prussian statesman and architect of German unification. However, the Iron Chancellor, who died in 1898, was not associated with the quote until the 1930s. In fact it was the American lawyer-poet, John Godfrey Saxe, otherwise famous for publicizing the ancient Indian parable about Blind Men of Hindustan and The Elephant, who more inelegantly said: "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made."<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As I write this, oral judgements have been completed at the Supreme Court hearing of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka’s petition against the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta. It has been 4 days of riveting presentation, argument and often, comedy, as one side prosecuted its case and the other tried to rubbish it. The main bone of contention appears to be about means and ends: whether the way the election was carried out matters or we should only concern ourselves with whether the results declared matched how the electors had voted.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In a sense, it could be said that President Kenyatta and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) appear to prefer the Bismarckian formulation that it is better to focus on the final product and not peer too closely at the inner workings of the electoral system. After all, they argue, the whole point of an election is to express the sovereign will of the voters. So, a simple check of the forms prepared at the polling stations (where all the voting and counting happened) should suffice.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The petitioners on the other hand, are more in line with Saxe. They say that the more we actually learn about how the election was run, the less reason we will have to respect the result. They point out numerous irregularities and outright illegalities in the conduct of the poll which they hold undermine any confidence, not only in the veracity of the announced result, but also in the authenticity of whatever documents the IEBC might produce to support it.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have been somewhat mystified by the way in which these arguments were framed. Throughout, voters have been portrayed as passive actors upon whom elections are visited. The lawyers in the room, including the Attorney-General, behaved very like the blind men of Hindustan trying to define the elephant that is the people’s sovereignty. There seemed little recognition that sovereignty does not start and end with the casting of ballots and determining of who becomes President. Citizens do not become sovereign when they transmogrify into voters. They are always sovereign in a democracy. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Further, as I have written before, voting in an election is not – as one of the lawyers unfortunately declared – the foundation of democracy. How much ordinary citizens can contribute to everyday political decision-making and their ability to hold public officials to account are the true measures of democracy. Thus, if elections are about the sovereignty of the voter, as another averred, then constitutions are about the citizen. And the entire corpus of law, the foundation of which should be the constitution and citizen participation in governance, is an exercise in sovereignty.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Protecting the expression of sovereignty therefore entails more than singularly ensuring the correct result was announced. It also means ensuring that the process prescribed by the law was adhered to. It is not a choice between respecting one or the other. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, after dominating TV screens for nearly a week, the process of adjudicating the petition moves into the shadows as the judges retire to consider their verdict. Four years ago, after a similar week of TV drama, they reappeared with a sausage of a judgement, with only a short summary of the decisions delivered in open court but eventually revealed to consist of a messy and unhealthy cocktail of poorly-reasoned arguments.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is proper that the judges should concern themselves with burdens and standards of proof and with the attendant requirements of who should prove what to which degree of satisfaction. In exercising its delegated sovereignty, the court is subject to the constraints of evidence. What is true and what can be proven not necessarily being the same thing, courts only concern themselves with the latter. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The upshot of this is that the court cannot tell us whether the election was stolen, just whether Raila and Kalonzo can prove it. That means, regardless of what the courts rule, it will still be up to each citizen to decide for himself or herself whether they believe the election was credible and whether the IEBC and other arms of government have properly carried out the mandates given to them.<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Still, this does not mean the Supreme Court’s judgement is irrelevant or unimportant. It will decide the legal validity, if not exactly the legitimacy, of the poll and the government it births. It is hoped that the judges will each prepare individual judgements, clearly detailing the reasons for the conclusions they have come to and that each will get to read his or her judgement in open court. The truth is, elections and court judgments should be nothing like sausages. The more one knows how they were made, the more they should command respect and be savored.<o:p></o:p></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-6513536714963056932017-08-24T23:47:00.000+03:002017-08-24T23:52:40.585+03:00The Marital State: Why Divorce Won't Solve Kenya's Problems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">David Ndii is at it again. In the aftermath of the election, he has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_n6-pDVB8" target="_blank">revived talk of his incendiary proposal for divorce</a>. Basically, he postulates that Kenyan ethnic communities are in “an abusive marriage” and if they cannot come to an accommodation, they need to consider going their separate ways. Despite being one of Kenya’s foremost public intellectuals, he is demonized by many in the ruling establishment and among their rabid supporters.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Although the proposal far preceded the elections, Ndii’s most recent comments were made and will be understood in the context of the election and especially the contested presidential poll, which is now the subject of a Supreme Court petition. The root of his argument is the perceived domination of Kenyan political life, and the opportunity to “eat” the national cake, by a few large tribes. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The current focus of the griping is the Kikuyu-Kalenjin axis inaugurated by the alliance of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto. But the narratives of domination, by either a single community or an alliance of a few of them, and resistance to it are as old as the country itself. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The logic of oppression and extraction was built into the state by our founding fathers, the British colonialists. They created a structure of government that was meant to entrench their lordship over all they surveyed and to facilitate extraction from natives.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Local communities didn’t take too kindly to this and eventually ganged up to demand their independence. However, their inheritance from the departing and receding British was the colonial state, which they failed to fundamentally reform and instead fell into squabbling over who would control it. And always, behind this, was fear of domination, which is really fear of the state.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In the run up to Independence, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party was created, almost overnight, as the vehicle for what was largely seen as a Kikuyu-Luo alliance to take over the state. It was immediately opposed by the rest of the “small” tribes who majorly ganged up under the auspices of the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU). </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The deck was shuffled again after KADU was swallowed up by KANU and the Luo jettisoned soon after. Though Daniel arap Moi, with his Kalenjin bloc, was nominally the number two in the party and in government, it was clear that for all intents and purposes the state now belonged to the Kikuyu elite. This was to continue until shortly after the death of Jomo Kenyatta. Now it was the turn for the Kikuyu elite to be tossed out into the cold where they joined their Luo counterparts to oppose the Kalenjin (Moi’s) state.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">This alliance eventually forced Moi’s retirement and the re-enactment of history as the Luo were once again double-crossed – this time by President Mwai Kibaki – and kicked out of what again became the Kikuyu state. The violence that followed the 2007 election gave rise to the first all-inclusive government where elites from all communities got in on the feeding frenzy. The 2013 elections again saw the Luo shut out by the current Kikuyu-Kalenjin alliance. A partnership that is perhaps slightly more equitable than the version between the current President’s father and Moi.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">What I’ve detailed above is a very simplified and simplistic model of Kenya’s history. However, it has the distinct advantage of helping us appreciate a fundamentally important fact that explains why Kenya is where it is today and why we go round in circles. The problem that we have been skirting for all these years is the state itself as a tool for domination rather than an expression of the people’s aspirations. We are fighting over who becomes the next oppressor, rather than trying to uproot oppression.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Which brings me back to Ndii’s argument. Last year, in response to his <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Kenya-is-a-cruel-marriage--it-s-time-we-talk-divorce/440808-3134132-2i7ea3/index.html" target="_blank">abusive marriage thesis</a>, I wrote that Kenyans are actually in <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2016/03/kenyas-flight-from-theory.html" target="_blank">an abusive relationship with their elites</a>, rather than with other tribes. The extraction that the state facilitates, and that is the real prize the elites are battling over, is from all Kenyans regardless of ethnicity – we all pay whoever gets to be the piper, some more than others, but that doesn’t mean we get to call the tune or avoid the rats.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">In fact, the whole talk of ethnic domination is a device to hide state domination by the elite of all tribes, which has led to a situation where <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22575" target="_blank">8,000 individuals own 62% of everything</a>. Dismembering the country will not fix this.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Clearly, as Ndii holds, there is in principle no reason why a discussion on secession or mutual separation cannot or should not happen. We should not fetishize Kenya since, as we have seen, it was not created for our benefit but rather as a tool for robbery. Think of that next time you feel compelled to sing its songs, salute its flag or declare its eternity. For most of the country’s existence, it has been little more than a mostly illegitimate political and administrative arrangement that we have been struggling to master. The 2010 constitution gave us a chance to begin to get to grips with that challenge and provides an agreed upon vision of how it can be made to work for us.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Part of that vision is decentralization as a cure to the overbearing central state. Since before independence, majimboism or its current iteration -devolution- has been at the crux of the struggle between those who were seen as domineering and the rest. It was one of the major issues that divided KADU and KANU. Although a pillar of the Independence constitution, which created 7 regional governments and assemblies, it was undone by KANU in the 60s which, among other things, simply <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/national-parliaments/kenya.php" target="_blank">starved the regional governments of revenue</a>. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Today, devolution remains at risk. The fact that the vast bulk of the tax money is controlled and retained in Nairobi, where the elite congregates, rather than disbursed in the counties where the people are dispersed is in itself telling. There is a deep need to ponder the continuing centrality of the national Presidency in our politics (it was, after all, largely modelled on the colonial Governor-General) and the fact that it remains a potent symbol, not of unity as envisaged in the constitution, but of domination.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Simply put, the work of implementing the constitution is not done. It has only begun but the night is here and it is full of terrors. Only by doing the hard work of facing up to our history and rebuilding the state from the bottom up, not as a tool of oppression, but as a means to enable popular aspirations, can we hope to extricate ourselves of the vicious cycle.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">We therefore must, as Ndii says, not shy away from scary discussions about the means we use to compel those in power to abide by the constitution, or even the possibility of separation if that fails. But we also must not be seduced by the easy, tribe-based formulations he offers, that only serve to mask the real nature of our state. However, the only way to truly appreciate what Ndii gets wrong, is to seriously engage with what he gets right.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-18390680130028073372017-08-20T01:31:00.000+03:002017-08-20T01:31:16.024+03:00Betrayal in the Kenyan Media<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Francis Imbuga’s 1976 play, Betrayal in the City, the Kenyan playwright and literature scholar describes life in the fictitious, dystopian, post-colonial state of Kafira. One of the characters, a university don&nbsp;jailed for speaking his mind: "We have killed our past and are busy killing our future".</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I write this, Kenya is busy killing its future. Once again, a disputed presidential election has put the country on edge. After a week of building tension and deserted streets and people stocking up on food, and water, protests have erupted in parts of Nairobi, sparked by the declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as winner. Gunshots and police choppers are being heard in Kibera, one of the capital’s largest slums and a bastion of support for his bitter rival, Raila Odinga, who claims he election has been stolen. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">Many had already fled their homes in expectation of violence and in the capital city, Nairobi, many have not gone back to work since voting </span><span style="color: #222222; margin: 0px;">on Tuesday</span><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">, leaving its normally bustling and noisy Central Business District feeling like a ghost town.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">Small protests had been breaking out in several parts of the capital and in other urban centres, throughout the week, which had led to clashes with police and, regrettably, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/895642142013390848" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">at least 5 deaths so far</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">. Given the ongoing unrest, that figure is set to rise even further.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, you wouldn’t know this watching most of Kenyan media -considered by some as one of the most vibrant on the continent. TV screens are full of pictures of celebrating Kenyatta supporters and political pundits analyzing the election outcome. Kenyans are having to turn to international media and to friends and family to get a sense of what is happening. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">Throughout the week, while dutifully covering the complaints of election hacking and rigging raised by Odinga, as well as the responses from the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the media was in the main determined to avoid any mention of trouble. Instead, it has opted to regale the country with </span><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Githeri-Man-Kenya-Elections-Martin-Kamotho-Njenga/1056-4052976-ryxffp/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">colorful stories of the Githeri Man, Kenya's new internet sensation</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">On social media, the usually irrepressible collective that calls itself Kenyans On Twitter (#KOT) is similarly subdued. As they have been doing the whole week, gangs of twitterbots are trolling the online streets looking for any reports of protests, branding them either “fake news” or evidence of a nefarious plot by foreign correspondents to incite violence for the sake of boosting their career prospects or securing book deals. There have even been </span><a href="http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/08/10/outcry-after-police-block-journalists-from-covering-kisumu-demos_c1614476" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">reports</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"> of police preventing journalists from covering the demonstrations, confiscating equipment and deleting footage and even threatening to shoot them.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">Much of this is reminiscent of what happened in the 2013 election. Four years ago, as the country again hang on tenterhooks as politicians bickered over another presidential election, </span><a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2013/03/the-monsters-under-house.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">I wrote of a compact</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"> that had developed between the media and the public: “Kenya would have a credible election, no matter what.” Back then, it was thought that the way to avoid the sort of violence that had nearly torn the country apart in 2007, on the back of yet another disputed presidential election (hope you are noticing a trend here), was to not ask uncomfortable questions about it.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today, the reasons for silence are considerably more sinister. In the run up to the election, there was great public resistance to “preaching peace” as a means of pre-empting violent protests in the event the election was disputed. So out went “peace journalism”. But in place of a compact with the people based on the mutual fear of anarchy, the media appears to have made a deal with the government based on a mutual interest in plundering the public.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">By law, the government is forbidden from advertising its achievements in any media during the election period. However, this did not stop the Kenyan media houses pocketing millions in the weeks before the election for broadcasting </span><a href="http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/07/20/kra-boss-pss-could-be-jailed-or-fined-for-engaging-in-politics_c1599651" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">blatantly illegal advertisements</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"> from the President’s Delivery Unit, some of which even bore the tagline “Jubilee Delivers” and “Uhuru 2017” (Jubilee is the political party of incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking re-election).</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In return, it seems the media has sold its soul. The first sign came very soon after the closing of the polls when one TV channel, KTN NEWS, gave the results of what it called an exit poll. The curious thing about that poll was it does not seem to have asked the voters how they voted, which one would assume is the point of an exit poll.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">But worse was to come. Going to bed with government seems to have led to a wholesale abandonment of their journalistic duty to independently verify the results of the election announced by the IEBC. </span><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/presidential-results-ruling/1064-3983598-ydcmepz/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; margin: 0px;">A Court of Appeal decision</span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"> in June had made it clear that results of the presidential election declared at polling stations and constituency tallying centres were final and could not be altered by IEBC mandarins at the national tallying center in Nairobi. That opened the door for the media to run independent tallies and, despite largely empty </span><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/CS-Mucheru-sends-warning-to-media-houses/1056-4038724-q5f3a8z/index.html"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">government threats of having their licenses cancelled</span></span></a><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">, even call the election. And indeed, many already had this capacity. In January, Samuel Macharia, the owner of Kenya’s largest TV and radio network, Royal Media Services, told the Senate that his network had independently tracked records at every presidential election since 1992.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet, it appears that this did not happen. Today, all the press is crowded at the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi, hanging on every word that issues from the IEBC. They have been content to run its unofficial tallies rather than get the official counts and tallies from the lower levels. And worst of all, as the politicians and IEBC officials haggle in Nairobi over which numbers are correct, the media is happy to play along rather than spare us the drama by simply heading down to the 40,000 polling stations where, even now, the official and final results are posted outside for all to see. </span><span style="background: yellow; margin: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rather than preaching peace, the Kenyan media has been earning its 30 pieces of silver by ignoring and editing out citizen frustrations in order to maintain a façade of normality. But there’s nothing normal about this silencing, the delegitimization of those, however many or few they may be, who feel the need to express their discontent through peaceful marches, or by ignoring of those who have died at the hands of the police.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Imbuga’s play has an ignominious character who uses his closeness to the supreme leader to secure corrupt advantages and to sell out his countrymates. At the end of the play, Mulili’s duplicity is laid bare and he is executed, signifying the passing of the oppressive order and the birth of new hope. Similarly, Kenya’s media needs to get out of Kenyans’ way so they can get down to the business of saving their future.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 31px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/11/kenyas-elections-show-how-the-media-has-sold-its-soul/?utm_term=.2034642d135e" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This piece was first published in the Washington Post.</span></a></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-53065431012477715102017-08-18T00:12:00.001+03:002017-08-18T00:12:15.809+03:00Why Kenyans Are Deathly Afraid Of Presidential Elections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another election. Another failure of systems. Another dispute, another anxiety laden wait. Another bout of violence. The routine has become depressingly familiar. Over the past week, Kenya has been at a standstill, holding her breath as votes were counted, announcements made and politicians bickered over the results, praying these would not summon the spectre of 2008.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenyan presidential elections have always been contentious - a legacy of our history dictatorship. Within a decade of independence from Britain in 1963, the country had been transformed into a de facto one party and as long as the centre was not challenged, other aspects of a competitive, democratic system were allowed to function.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This meant that for the first 30 years, while parliamentary races were fiercely competitive -with more than half of incumbent Members of Parliament regularly thrown out- at the presidential level, they remained a placid affair. Jomo Kenyatta and his successor, Daniel arap Moi, as heads of the party were “re-elected” unopposed at every turn.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A year to the 1992 elections, however, everything changed. Following a sustained two-year campaign of protests and international pressure, Moi was forced to reverse a decade-old change to the constitution which had formally banned political parties other than his own. This led to the first ever competitive race for President, which set the tone for all presidential contests to come -it was marred by large-scale, ethnic-based, violence, irregularity and outright theft. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 1992 polls were preceded by government-instigated “tribal clashes”, <span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;">in which 5,000 people were killed and another 75,000 displaced in the expansive Rift Valley. Just months before the 1997 elections, politically instigated violence killed over 100 people and displaced an estimated 100,000. While both 2002 and 2013 election campaigns were marked by several incidents of violence, with no incumbents running, the violence was somewhat limited.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At first glance, the violence of 2007/8 seems to sit pretty well within this picture. But, on closer inspection, there are fundamental differences. All previous large scale electoral violence was instigated controlled and perpetrated either by the government or with its acquiescence. The 2008 violence was the first time Kenyans confronted the prospect of a Hobbesian “war of all against all”, with the opposition also able to mount significant violence.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenya’s electoral violence had previously been controlled and limited in geography and scope. Though the 2007/8 was not the worst the country had suffered, it provided a glimpse of a possible and very scary future, where the threat of violence did not stem primarily from the state, but from one’s neighbours and friends. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenya has always been a violent country, one silently at war with itself. The colonial state is at the center of that conflict. The various communities and fractions of communities that make up the nation are constantly fighting to control the state which ironically was created to facilitate others preying on them. At independence, rather than reform it, the clique that inherited it, which includes both Uhuru’s and Raila’s fathers used it to enrich themselves and their friends and relatives at the expense of the rest of society. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Throughout it all, as Matt Carotenuto writes, the state has learned to weaponize the language of “peace” to avoid scrutiny of its actions and a discussion of the past. “From the days of Jomo Kenyatta’s regime to the Presidency of his son Uhuru, Kenya’s five decades of independence have been marked by wide ranging uses of “peace” to silence more messy notions of reconciliation and political change.”</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Kenyans settle down to the daily grind, there is a danger that they will once again be urged to as Kenyatta put it in 2002 “forget the past, however bitter we may be, and forge a common front to be able to overcome our emotions”. But that would be a mistake because, if there are any lessons to be learnt from Kenya’s history, it is that a true “common front” will not be forged through “forgetting he past” but by facing and dealing with it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenya is thus has a choice. The country can either try to recreate the brutality that its colonial state wielded previously and attempt to force the genie back into the bottle, or it could actually attempt to confront and deal with its traumatic past and to begin to create a state that works for all. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Kenyatta appears to have settled for the former, judging by the viciousness with which post-election riots have been put down – at least 24 people have been shot dead and many more, including a six-month old baby, badly beaten.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What prevails in Kenya now, what has always prevailed, is not peace but rather, an uneasy calm -a ceasefire of sorts. But it won’t last, nor be translated into a deeper peace unless the country has the courage to fix its frayed national fabric. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-53164530768198622782017-07-26T16:48:00.000+03:002017-07-26T16:48:19.645+03:00Game of Thrones - Kenya Edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am a big fan of Game of Thrones, the American fantasy drama television series centering on the struggle by various political dynasties to succeed to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms in the fictional land of Westeros. Now in its seventh season, the various plot twists and turns, the rise and fall of the fortunes of characters keeps me glued to the TV whenever it’s on. Missing any of the weekly episodes, or even having to wait months for the next season to start is an anathema.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In a way, my angst is reflected in the reactions this week to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to skip the Presidential Debates. Politics is Kenya’s version of Westeros, complete with skullduggery, moral nudity, incestuous liaisons and, of course, a throne all covet, fear or manipulate.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>We revel in the gladiatorial contests for power between scions of political dynasties, in the intrigues and betrayals, in the gore and mayhem. As I have <a href="http://gathara.blogspot.co.ke/2017/05/why-do-kenyan-politicians-dance.html" target="_blank">written</a> before, and as was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=878&amp;v=0ipxY1xcZo8" target="_blank">reiterated</a> by Dr Wandia Njoya and Dr Peter Kagwanja in this week’s edition of the Cheche show on Citizen TV, our politics is a show put on by politicians that has little to do with addressing the everyday struggles of ordinary folks. In fact, it is meant to distract attention from those very problems.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is an implicit compact. We will be content to ignore the fundamental questions and issues facing our polity so long as our politicians do the dance. The rhetorical contests of election campaigns, manifestos and TV debates are the stuff of this performance which plays out on our TV screens and on political dais across the nation. It is this compact that President Kenyatta violated.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What was promised was a no-holds barred, blood-on-the-floor cage match with the media providing the stage and acting as both promoter and referee. After weeks of priming and waiting, we had taken our ringside seats, enjoyed the curtain raisers in the form of the debate between the three of the other six candidates and were waiting for the headline event which was to pit the President against his main challenger, Raila Odinga. Thus the disappointment and anger was palpable, even within supporters of his Jubilee Party, when the reigning champion failed to turn up.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What we instead got was a tepid performance of shadow boxing, where Raila, alone on stage, ducked, weaved and parried the moderator’s poor attempts to pin him down. In the end, we learnt little that was of value, that we didn’t already know. But that is not why we were there. Few in the audience were particularly interested in the intricacies of policy and in understanding how NASA or Jubilee would pay for the fantastical promises of brand-new stadia, roads and free everything. We wanted blood and gore and broken teeth and spilled guts. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is show we had paid for with our stolen taxes and our enduring poverty and oppression. It is what we had sacrificed our pensions, health and children’s futures for. And we’d been had. We were left feeling short-changed and vented our rage in bars, meeting places, TV screens and on social media, always careful to couch it in the acceptable language of accountability.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have, we will keep saying disingenuously, been denied the opportunity to question our leaders, to hold them to account, to understand the issues on which the election campaigns are supposedly being waged. But this is not true and we know it. The manifestos are online if we want to interrogate them. Nothing stops us debating the issues and demanding that the media reflect them in the questions they pose to candidates and politicians and not be fobbed off with non-answers. As Dr Kagwanja asked, "What are Kenyans lacking?" The truth is we had been denied a show, a performance. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What we should ponder is less whether the President should have turned up and more why we engage in this charade. Politics and political debates should be about much more than entertainment and should definitely be about finding real solutions to our very real problems. Not a distraction from them. We already have Game of Thrones for that. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.com1